Community, Social, and Environmental Determinants of Health

This TRG is led by Dr. Chris Heaney (Associate Professor) and co-led by Dr. Ana Rule (Assistant Professor). The proposed CHARMED will serve as a nucleus to merge parallel efforts and utilize the expertise and services of the center to expand the scope of research on topics with important community implications. As one important example, fossil fuel production, processing, and use have been drivers of poor air quality and community and health impacts for centuries. As older technologies are phased out and new ones are considered and developed, it is paramount to understand the potential and ongoing impacts that these activities can have on exposures, communities, and population health. Multiple Center members have been involved in understanding emission, pollutant distribution, and the community, economic, and health impacts of existing (e.g., oil refineries) and new (e.g., UNGD) fossil fuel development, distribution, and use. Many translational bridges20 have been successfully achieved by these investigations (Figure).