Environmental Justice Training

Background

The NIH Environmental Justice (EJ) Training Program will encompass the full spectrum of NIH training programs, activities, and initiatives that address the key areas of EO 14096: Revitalizing Our Nation's Commitment to Environmental Justice for All (2023). The program embraces the policy’s stated goal to pursue a whole-of-government approach to environmental justice. It also supports the HHS vision for environmental justice: “A nation that equitably promotes healthy community environments and protects the health of all people.”

The EJ Training Program aims to:

  • Build the capacity of community residents and community-based organizations.
  • Train researchers to work in partnership with communities to address EJ issues.
  • Train healthcare professionals, public health professionals, and policy makers to build their understanding of EJ and the connection it has to health and well-being.

The two focus areas of the program are:

  1. Researcher and Staff Training Program: Train NIH staff and researchers on the fundamentals of environmental justice, health disparities, Tribal engagement, community engaged and participatory research, and citizen science.
  2. Community Training Program: Build the capacity of communities, most at risk from current and emerging environmental threats, to address environmental concerns through customized and tailored trainings on environmental health data access and use, and evidence-based research design.

Researcher and Staff Training Program

The Researcher and Staff Training Program seeks to develop or enhance models and training tools to incorporate a more community engaged and focused research approach into existing programs. The trainings will support the HHS Environmental Justice Strategic Goals under Research.

Objectives

  • Build the capacity of researchers and staff to address current and emerging environmental threats via tailored trainings on environmental health, justice and disparities including social determinates of health, data access and use, and evidence-based research design.
  • Partner with communities at-risk from current and emerging environmental threats along with other researchers and academics in the conceptualization, development, and implementation of NIH’s EJ Training Program.
  • Foster effective working relationships between NIH and communities at risk from current and emerging environmental threats.

Specific Aims

  1. Organize, promote, and use existing publicly available federally funded environmental health data tools and NIH research resources that focus on topics such as: community-based participatory research, implementation science, cultural competency, and environmental justice training. The goal is to build academic and NIH staff capacities to better work with community residents and organizations to address EJ issues.
  2. Conduct educational training sessions to increase understanding of key approaches listed above, promote integration of these approaches with researcher community and actively engage EJ community and Tribal participation in NIH and other environmental health research.
  3. Advance the HHS EJ Strategic Plan training goals and initiatives in collaboration with community and Tribal partners.

Community Training Program

In alignment with Executive Order 14096 (88 FR 25251, April 26, 2023)  and HHS Strategic Plan FY2022-2026, the EJ Community Training Program seeks to address EO 14096 Directive (vii), which states that the federal government must create opportunities for meaningful engagement of EJ communities by providing tools, resources, and technical assistance.

Additionally, the EJ Community Training Program will address HHS Objective 4.4, which emphasizes the importance of collaborations to expand data access and sharing.

Objectives

  • Use existing publicly available federally funded environmental health data tools and NIH research design resources to build community capacity to address environmental threats.
  • Conduct community education training sessions to increase community knowledge and promote the use of data to enhance efforts to address environmental health issues.
  • Serve as a resource and partner to community stakeholders as they launch local environmental health research initiatives, and education and dissemination efforts.
  • Collaboratively create NIH Strategic Plan EJ training goals and initiatives in partnership with at-risk community stakeholders.

Specific Aims

  1. Build the capacity of at-risk communities to address current and emerging environmental threats through customized and tailored trainings on environmental health data access and use, and evidence-based research design.
  2. Partner with at-risk communities in the conceptualization, development, and implementation of NIHs EJ Community Training Program.
  3. Foster effective working relationships between NIH and at-risk communities.

Resources & Tools

As materials are developed, collected, and organized, we will post them here.

EJ Training Program Points of Contact

Researcher and Staff Training

Sharon Beard, M.S.

Director, NIEHS Worker Training Program
sharon.beard@nih.gov
984-287-3237

Joan Packenham, Ph.D.

Director, Office of Human Research and Community Engagement (OHRCE), NIEHS
joan.packenham@nih.gov
984-287-4413

Darlene Dixon, DVM, Ph.D.

Acting Chief, Mechanistic Toxicology Branch, NIEHS
darlene.dixon@nih.gov
984-287-3848

Community Training

Beverly Xaviera Watkins, M.A., Ph.D., M.A.

Scientific Diversity Officer, NIH OD
bev.watkins@nih.gov
301-402-9852

This page last reviewed on October 22, 2024