The UNM Center for Native American Environmental Health Equity Research addresses emerging tribal environmental health disparities associated with trash burning and dumping, resulting from insufficient infrastructure disparities to manage solid waste on tribal lands. The Community Engagement and Dissemination Core (CEDC) expands sustainable, culturally-informed practices to enhance EH literacy, increase tribal EH research capacity, foster community engagement in EH research, and implement multi-directional translational strategies for disseminating the Center’s research.
To enhance EH literacy, foster engagement in research projects and build tribal EH research capacity, the CEDC will conduct regular location-specific EH symposia and a ongoing webinar series addressing environment and health topics. Other CEDC activities include continued implementation of a targeted environmental health and toxicology literacy education program. This core will work with community research liaisons to disseminate research results, hired exclusively from tribal communities, with understanding of environmental exposure sources and pathways based on local Traditional Ecological Knowledge and transgenerational perspectives on health and resiliency. To facilitate the linkage with TEK/IWK, our artist-in-residence will continue to develop art pieces (e.g., paintings) to translate the Center’s complex scientific research objectives and findings to tribal communities using traditional messaging relayed through native symbolism, storytelling, and other transgenerational imagery.
Esther Erdei
University of New Mexico
Joseph Hoover
University of Arizona
The Investigator Development Core (ID Core) promotes development of new investigators as they strive to establish independent research programs in Native environmental health disparities research. The overarching objective of the ID Core is to encourage active participation of Center partners to develop a sustained, powerful influence on reducing health disparities by promoting quality research and building long-term research capacity.
The core will promote research opportunities for young investigators and members of health disparity populations through recruitment, mentoring, research training and professional development opportunities. The ID Core includes a Pilot Project Program that will provide seed funding to eligible early career investigators at partner organizations in support of innovative research ideas of importance to environmental health disparities. Mentoring support, research training and professional opportunities will promote successful completion of projects and promote long-term research capacity.
Debra MacKenzie
University of New Mexico
The integrated approach described in the UNM Center for Native Environmental Health Equity (Native EH Equity) will for the first time address, across multiple tribes, disparities in social determinants of health, and tribal cultural and traditional practices with the potential to provide resilience to reduce the effects of environmental disparities on the health of Native Americans. The Administrative Core (AC) for Native EH Equity brings decades of experience working with Tribal communities, leadership, and agencies; of managing and analyzing large and complex datasets; of oversight of career development programs; of integrative analyses allowing replication of findings with multiple levels of data; and of successful translation of results to enhance understanding in communities, among researchers, to federal agencies, and to health care providers.
The goal of the Administrative Core (AC) is to facilitate responsible management, resource allocation, integration and communication within the team; to foster successful career development for new investigators; to provide and manage pilot funding; and long-term to develop sustainable partnerships integrated within the institutional and tribal structures to ensure sustainability of research on Native Environmental Health Equity.
Johnnye Lewis
The University of New Mexico
Debra MacKenzie
The University of New Mexico
Joseph Hoover
University Of Arizona
