The NIEHS Community Outreach and Education Core (COEC) at UC Davis is composed of University scientists, extension educators and community health care specialists who provide information and support to Northern California communities. Core members include: Co-Core Leader Martha Stiles, M.S., Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering; Co-Core Leader Stephen McCurdy, M.D., M.P.H. Professor of Public Health Sciences and COEC Integrated Health Sciences Specialist; Fumio Matsumura, Ph.D., Professor of Environmental Toxicology and COEC Advisor and Cancer and Neurotoxicology Specialist; Elizabeth Noceti-Didio, A.S., Department of Public Health Sciences, and COEC Coordinator and IHS Specialist; and Rebecca Morrison, B.A., NIEHS/EPA Center for Children's Environmental Health and COEC Coordinator and Neurotoxicology Specialist. Our specific expertise is in the area of health effects of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers, but we also study other toxins such as dioxins, ozone and tobacco smoke. We currently have education programs for K-12 teachers and students, farmworkers, pesticide handlers, clinic personnel, and UC Davis graduate students and undergraduates.
The COEC has a Community Advisory Board which comprises a wide range of expertise on public and environmental health:
Thomas Cahill, Ph.D., Breathe California
Breathe California is an advocacy nonprofit organization that actively pursues a number of local policies aimed at protecting the health of the community. Breathe California fights lung disease in all its forms and works within communities to promote lung health. Since 1911, this agency has carried out this mission through a host of critical programs and services. Starting as the Tuberculosis Society, their dedication has always been to work in partnership with local communities to improve the quality of life enjoyed throughout California’s great Central Valley. Their key roles have been to establish tobacco-free communities, achieve healthy air quality and fight lung diseases, such as asthma and tuberculosis. Prevention is their priority. Through education, political advocacy, cutting-edge research and patient services, they use a comprehensive approach to promote healthy lifestyles and reduce the impact of lung disease.
Sophia Colamarino, Ph.D., Cure Autism Now
Cure Autism Now (CAN) is an organization of parents, clinicians and leading scientists committed to accelerating the pace of biomedical research in autism by raising money for research projects, education and outreach. Founded by parents of children with autism in 1995, the organization has grown from a kitchen-table effort to the largest provider of support for autism research and resources in the country. The organization's primary focus is to fund essential research through a variety of programs designed to encourage innovative approaches toward identifying the causes, prevention, treatment and a cure for autism and related disorders. Since its founding, Cure Autism Now has committed over $39 million in research, the establishment and ongoing support of the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange (AGRE), and numerous outreach and awareness activities aimed at families, physicians, governmental officials and the general public.
Rogelio Fernandez, M.D., United Health Centers San Joaquin Valley, Inc.
United Health Centers’ service area is located in the heart of California in the central San Joaquin Valley. The San Joaquin Valley is considered the richest agricultural area in the United States. The agricultural economy of the San Joaquin Valley depends heavily on a farm labor force that is made up primarily of local farmworkers. United Health Centers delivers approximately 130,000 medical, dental and other service encounters per year. The ethnic composition of the patients served by the centers is 91% Hispanic, 1% Black, 7% White and 1% other.
Sharon Muraoka, Policy Director, American Cancer Society, California Division
The American Cancer Society (ACS) is the nationwide community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives, and diminishing suffering from cancer, through research, education, advocacy, and service. ACS supports research to learn about the role of environmental factors in cancer causation. In California, ACS is developing approaches related to environmental issues based on research data. Some of the areas of involvement are cancer clusters, arsenic in drinking water, asbestos, integrated pest management, diesel exhaust emissions, air pollution, environmental health tracking, environmental justice and the built environment.
Linda Tombras Smith, Ph.D., California EPA Air Resources Board
The California Air Resources Board is a part of the California Environmental Protection Agency, an organization that reports directly to the Governor’s Office in California. The mission of the Air Resources Board is to promote and protect public health welfare and ecological resources through the effective and efficient reduction of air pollutants, while recognizing and considering the effects of the economy of the state.
Steve Naimen, Community Health Program Coordinator, Del Norte Clinics, Inc.
Del Norte Clinics, Inc. is a network of rural community-based health and dental centers that provides accessible and affordable health, dental and mental care services and educational services for the medically underserved and uninsured population, including farmworkers and others in the Northern California counties of Glenn, Butte, Colusa, Sutter and Yuba.
Richard Cotta, California Dairies
California Dairies, Inc. is the number one dairy cooperative in the number one dairy state in the United States. California Dairies, Inc. is the result of a successful 1999 merger of three of California's most financially successful cooperatives: California Milk Producers, Danish Creamery and San Joaquin Valley Dairymen. California Dairies, Inc. is owned by 680 California dairies that ship a combined total of over 14 billion pounds of milk to be sold and processed annually. The owners have dairies located from San Diego County in the south to Marin County in the north. Most of the milk supply is located in the San Joaquin Valley from Kern County to San Joaquin County.
Heidi Haugen, Florin High School, Sacramento
Florin High School is very active with outreach programs and is a strong partner of the Healthy Start program. Healthy Start is designed to coordinate services to improve the educational health and social opportunities for students and families. Regular events include health screenings, immunization health fairs, parent education workshops, and gang and violence prevention lessons. Healthy Start also conducts dental screenings at middle and elementary schools in the Valley and Florin regions. These screenings are free to all students.
Graham Brownstein, Environmental Council of Sacramento
ECOS is a coalition of environmental and civic organizations with a combined membership of more than 12,000 citizens throughout the Sacramento Region. They support coordinated land use and transportation planning that discourages urban sprawl and encourages preservation and enhancement of the ecology of open spaces and reduction of pollution in air, water, and land.
For more information about our outreach programs, please contact Rebecca Morrison at rlmorrison@ucdavis.edu, 530-754-8157.
All of these outreach programs are supported
by grant #ES05707 from the National Institute of Environmental Health
Sciences.
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