Community-engaged Research

My MPH practicum experience was with InterIm Community Development Association’s Danny Woo Community Garden to launch the Restaurant 2 Garden project.

Staphylococcus aureus are both human commensal bacteria and potential pathogens. The aim of this study was to isolate and characterize methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) from coastal beach and river waters, anchialine pools, sand, and wastewater on the Island of Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi.

Workers who come into contact with tuberculosis (TB) patients are at elevated risk of TB infection and disease. Tongue swabbing is an alternative diagnostic sample collection approach that was designed to mitigate this risk. This study assessed risk perceptions among healthcare workers (HCWs) using tongue swabs for TB diagnosis in South Africa during a respiratory virus pandemic.

Introduction: Gentrification is a public health crisis and significant environmental injustice. Rapid gentrification of Seattle unequally burdens and displaces families of color further south in King County. Gentrification changes the environment, forcing readjustments that can compromise the continuity of education, healthcare, housing and employment.

Dementia has been considered a major global public health priority (WHO, 2012). It is very common in older adults (Alzheimer’s Association, 2015b; Seshadri & Wolf, 2007; Weuve et al., 2014) and characterized by the progressive and irreversible loss of memory and mental abilities (Alzheimer’s Association, 2008).

The goal for environmental justice is for everyone to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, work, play and worship. Community-academic partnerships have been effective in addressing environmental health disparities in various settings.

Since time immemorial, First Nations shaped the environment around them to create and maintain highly productive societies. Today with the growing threats of a changing climate and continued nearshore development, important traditional resources may not be available for future generations.

Background: The US Safe Drinking Water Act does not regulate private wells, leaving over 42 million US residents with little regulatory oversight of their water quality. Trends in public water systems suggest that private wells in Latinx communities may have higher nitrate concentrations than wells in other communities.

Background: The built environment affects the health of a community in a multitude of ways. One of those ways is through changing an individual’s exposure to environmental contaminants, such as bacterial pathogens. Another is through the availability of food.

Issues: Smartphones and other mobile devices have become important tools for collecting wellness and personal health information. To take advantage of this potential, an environmental justice organization is developing an app to help citizen scientists collect water samples and share water quality data.

The Imperial Project was a collaboration between community organizations, academia, and state partners created to investigate levels of particulate matter, a criteria air pollutant, in the highly impacted community of Imperial County. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) techniques were used to ensure that community members were engaged in each step of the research process.