Hear from our speaker & this year's awardees!
12 - 1:30 p.m. Friday, May 31
School of Nursing Auditorium, Helen Wood Hall
Keynote Speaker: Sacoby Wilson, MS, PhD, director of Community Engagement, Environmental Justice, and Health at the University of Maryland School of Public Health
Presentation: "The Power of Community Engagement in the Fight for Environmental, Climate, and Energy Justice: Approaches, Solutions, and Impact"
Lunch will be provided in Evarts Lounge immediately following the awards ceremony. Limited seating available - RSVPs for lunch must be received by Thursday, May 23.
Dr. Wilson will discuss the history of environmental justice issues in the United States, including the relationship between environmental injustice and health inequity. He will also discuss how climate change is exacerbating these inequities. Additionally, he will describe how community engagement and community-engaged research (CENR), particularly community-based participatory action research (CBPR) and community science, can be used to study and address environmental, climate, and energy injustices and related health outcomes.
He will present examples of effective community-university partnerships and collaborations with non-profits and other stakeholder groups, including government agencies in his career over the past 25 years with a focus on the Mid-Atlantic region and the Southeast. He will describe the challenges experienced in some of these projects and the positive impacts as well. Finally, he will discuss lessons learned and best practices that can be used to 'power' communities of concern in their fights for environmental, climate, and energy justice.
Dr. Wilson has more than 20 years of experience as an environmental health scientist in the areas of exposure science, environmental justice, environmental health disparities, community-based participatory research, water quality analysis, air pollution studies, built environment, industrial animal production, climate change, community resiliency, and sustainability. He works primarily in partnership with community-based organizations to study and address environmental justice and health issues and translate research to action.
Our 2024 Awardees:
Senior Faculty Awardee
Tarun Bhalla, MD, PhD
Vice Chair, Regional Neurosurgery
Chief, Division of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Neurosurgery
Director, Mobile Stroke Unit Program
Associate professor, Neurosurgery, Neurology and Imaging Sciences
Director, CAST/CNS-Endovascular Neurosurgery Fellowship
Junior Faculty Awardee
Maria Quiñones-Cordero, PhD
Clinical Psychologist and Assistant Professor of Clinical Nursing, School of Nursing
Leader of the Hispanic and Latino Engagement sub-core, National Institute of Aging-funded Rochester Roybal Center for Social Ties and Aging Research
Staff Awardee
Susan Rietberg-Miller, MPH
Senior Public Health Project Specialist, OBGYN Research Department
Coordinator, LGBTQ+ Health Initiative
Team Awardee
EAST-UR Collaborative
This collaborative is made up of a variety of EAST-UR programs that work together to support students at EAST High to achieve greater academic and career success. Programs include EAST EPO, Medial Lab & Health Sciences, UR NursEAST, NEUROEAST, Imaging Science & Radiology, HOSA - Lunch & Learns, and the Teen Health & Success Partnership, among others.
Event Parking Instructions:
Use this QR code to enter and exit the parking lot. Please do not take a ticket from the booth.
You may use the pass two different ways:
- Pull the pass up on your phone to scan the QR code (please make sure your screen brightness is at 100% for this option to work)
- Print the pass to scan
There will be a parking attendant on site in case you run into any issues entering the lot.
***Please note: If you have a current UR/URMC issued parking permit for any lot other than the Saunders lot, please do not park in the Saunders lot, you may be ticketed.