Start Date
19-12-2023 3:45 PM
End Date
19-12-2023 5:00 PM
Access Type
Open Access
Abstract
Environmental justice communities, those disproportionately affected by pollutants, are simultaneously exposed to multiple environmental stressors and also experience social and cultural factors that may heighten their health risks in comparison to other communities. Availability of fine-grained, community-level data is limited to support said communities’ appeals for public health practice, planning, and policy changes. In Northwest Atlanta, Georgia’s Proctor Creek Watershed community residents (watershed researchers), academics, and non-profit organizations have leveraged local, community knowledge; community science methods; and participatory approaches to identify, document, and analyze the impacts of local environmental hazards and quality of life stressors. This highly collaborative and interdisciplinary work has helped to improve municipal services and community-municipality collaboration while also demonstrating that the democratization of science can help fill critical data gaps about local conditions and pollution sources, advance environmental justice, and impact changes in the implementation of urban policies and practice that influence community health.
Biography
Dr. Na’Taki Osborne Jelks is an Assistant Professor in the Environmental and Health Sciences Program at Spelman College in Atlanta, GA. She investigates urban environmental health disparities; cumulative environmental risks and health; the impact of climate change on vulnerable populations, and the connection between urban watersheds, pollution, the built environment, and health. . Jelks is particularly interested in approaches that engage environmentally overburdened communities in monitoring local environmental conditions, generating actionable data for community change, and developing effective community-based interventions that revitalize toxic, degraded spaces into healthy places. Jelks studied Chemistry and Civil and Environmental Engineering at Spelman College and the Georgia Institute of Technology respectively before earning a Master of Environmental and Occupational Health degree at Emory University and a Ph.D. in Public Health at Georgia State University.
Additional Links
ORCID
Taking Science to the Streets: Participatory Research Approaches to Improve Environment, Health, and Quality of Life in Urban Areas
Environmental justice communities, those disproportionately affected by pollutants, are simultaneously exposed to multiple environmental stressors and also experience social and cultural factors that may heighten their health risks in comparison to other communities. Availability of fine-grained, community-level data is limited to support said communities’ appeals for public health practice, planning, and policy changes. In Northwest Atlanta, Georgia’s Proctor Creek Watershed community residents (watershed researchers), academics, and non-profit organizations have leveraged local, community knowledge; community science methods; and participatory approaches to identify, document, and analyze the impacts of local environmental hazards and quality of life stressors. This highly collaborative and interdisciplinary work has helped to improve municipal services and community-municipality collaboration while also demonstrating that the democratization of science can help fill critical data gaps about local conditions and pollution sources, advance environmental justice, and impact changes in the implementation of urban policies and practice that influence community health.