On Thursday, February 20, 2020, Dr. Sacoby Wilson, an Associate Professor with the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Maryland-College Park, presented the Center for Translating Research Into Practice Annual Keynote Community Address at 7 p.m. at the John H. Boner Center, 2236 E 10th St, Indianapolis, IN 46201 in the St. Clair Conference Room.
"The Role of Community-Engaged Research and Practice in addressing Environmental (In) Justice in the 21st Century"
For more than 40 years, the environmental justice movement has shown that communities of color, low-income communities, and indigenous groups are differentially burdened by environmental hazards, noxious land uses, and pollution leading to poor health outcomes and health inequities. Unfortunately, the disproportionate burden of hazards, pollutants, and health risks can be linked to environmental racism-- racial discrimination in zoning and planning, environmental policymaking, and enforcement of laws and regulations. In this lecture, Dr. Wilson will discuss examples of environmental racism and oppression in the 21st Century. He will describe how community-engaged research approaches including crowd science and community-based participatory research (CBPR) have been used to raise awareness about environmental justice concerns, inpower residents, and increased community capacity to address these concerns. He will discuss challenges, solutions, best practices, and lessons learned for communities impacted by goods movement in Charleston, South Carolina; lack of basic amenities and industrial hog operations in North Carolina; traffic, power plants, and other hazards in Maryland; and describe the struggle for environmental justice and health equity in other parts of the country. This lecture will provide insight into the role that science and scientists can play in advancing environmental justice and elimination of inequities and why it’s important for authentic and transformative collaborations to be community-centered and grassroots-driven.