Recent M-LEEaD News and Member Updates
See all M-LEEaD News2024
November 2024: M-LEEaD Newsletter November 2024: EHSCC Annual Meeting Recap, Member News, and Upcoming Seminars • Image caption, clockwise from top left: 1) EHSCC Community Engagement Core attendees; 2) Kelly Bakulski and Jalonne White-Newsome at the Reginald Lewis Museum in Baltimore; 3) New Investigator Spotlight presentation; 4) EHSCC members at the Baltimore Community Tour, organized by CEC leaders; 5) Dana Dolinoy, Katherine Manz, Xin Wang, and Hao Wang at the meeting poster session. The 2024 NIEHS Environmental Health Sciences Core Center in-person meeting was hosted by Johns Hopkins University this past September. This annual meeting, with this year's theme of Community Exposomics, brought researchers, scientists, academics, and community members together to share their insights and expand... Read more
June 2024: M-LEEaD Newsletter June 2024 • The Center Scientist position, offered through M-LEEaD's Career Development Program led by Drs. Gil Omenn and Justin Colacino, provides special mentorship experiences to two early-stage investigators each year. Selected candidates engage in research that addresses the goals of the M-LEEaD Center to define, explain, or mitigate the impacts of environmental exposures during vulnerable stages of life. We are pleased to announce the 2024-25 Center Scientists! Olivia Halabicky, M.Sc., PhD, is current Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer in the Department of Nutritional Sciences and a former Environmental Toxicology and Epidemiology Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences. She received her... Read more
May 2024: M-LEEaD Newsletter May 2024 • In the ongoing mission to address air pollution and its detrimental effects on health, the M-LEEaD Center's Community Engagement Core (CEC) has unveiled its newest resource: a comprehensive factsheet titled "Enhanced Indoor Air Filters: Reducing Air Pollution Inside Homes and Schools." The factsheet delves into air filtration, explaining MERV ratings and the efficacy of HEPA filters. It also sheds light on Particulate Matter (PM), a prevalent indoor pollutant with severe health implications. The factsheet recommends utilizing better filters in homes and schools, especially as one report ranks Detroit 5th among the most challenging places to live with asthma in the... Read more
April 2024: M-LEEaD Newsletter April 2024: Stats Day recap, RFA for 2024 Center Scientists released, and more! • The Environmental Statistics Day Symposium on March 18, 2024, at SPH was an insightful event to learn about research collaborations on Artificial Intelligence techniques as they apply to Environmental Health Research. The keynote address was given by Jason Moore, PhD on Automating Machine Learning for the Environmental Health Sciences. Dr. Moore holds the positions of Chair in the Department of Computational Biomedicine, Director of the Center for Artificial Intelligence Research & Education, and Professor of Computational Biomedicine and AI in Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The event concluded with a Michigan Perspectives session, featuring early career investigators from U of M... Read more
March 2024: M-LEEaD Newsletter March 2024: Catch up from PEPH, Pilot Grant Call, Member News! • The Partnerships for Environmental Public Health (PEPH) 2024 meeting bought grantees and partners within the PEPH network together to discuss common issues, approaches, and opportunities. The focus was on engaging diverse teams in the context of the intersection of climate change and environmental justice. M-LEEaD was well-represented at the event, as outlined below: Natalie Sampson was a panelist on the workshop session titled “Intergenerational Engagement,” which focused on the importance of engaging multiple generations in environmental health topics as essential when building capacity for youth and beyond in this sector. The session provided an understanding of effective strategies when working... Read more
February 2024: M-LEEaD Newsletter February 2024 • Have you caught any of M-LEEaD’s Residents & Researchers (R&R) Seminars? The R&R series, a collaboration between the Community Engagement and Integrated Health Sciences Cores, facilitates partnerships and understanding of community concerns among M-LEEaD researchers - and of scientific research among people experiencing environmental exposures in their communities. The goal is to help connect research on environmental risk factors to the experience of environmental hazards in the places where people live, work and play - and even more importantly, to provide examples of the power of partnerships between researchers and community residents in addressing critical environmental health issues. The focus... Read more
January 2024: M-LEEaD Newsletter January 2024: Partnership Development Program, Member News, and More! • M-LEEaD’s Community Engagement core is excited to announce our “Partnership Development Program” (PDP). The PDP provides financial and technical support for new partnerships between community members and researchers. We can also support existing partnerships taking on new or expanded collaborative research efforts. Applicants should be working in partnership to address research questions related to environmental health and justice issues—either their causes or their solutions or both. Applications must be submitted on behalf of at least two partners: an academic partner and a community group, community-based organization or government agency in Detroit, Southeast Michigan or other Michigan communities experiencing environmental health... Read more