Source: NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIV submitted to
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE FOR FUTURE LEADERS IN FORESTRY AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1025502
Grant No.
2021-38420-34056
Cumulative Award Amt.
$262,500.00
Proposal No.
2020-08199
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Jan 15, 2021
Project End Date
Jan 14, 2026
Grant Year
2021
Program Code
[KK]- National Needs Graduate Fellowships Program
Project Director
Richmond-Bryant, J.
Recipient Organization
NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIV
(N/A)
RALEIGH,NC 27695
Performing Department
For & Envir Res Acad Research
Non Technical Summary
Environmental justice (EJ) is an academic and policy framework intended to evaluate the societal costs of decisions about environmental management, food production, and other activities within the scope of agricultural and natural resources.Although EJ work often focuses on inequities in environmental conditions experienced by low-income or racially marginalized communities, agricultural and natural resources scientists rarely encounter EJ in their academic training, research, or hands-on practical experiences - even at land-grant institutions, whose missions include deep community engagement and service.This program will recruit and mentor three Ph.D. Fellows for an innovative experience that integrates EJ theory, practice, and methods into training within the Targeted Expertise Shortage Area (TESA) of Forest Resources.Fellows will undertake coursework and dissertation research in pursuit of a Ph.D. in Forestry and Environmental Resources and will receive hands-on training through external experiences.The program will recruit Fellows from diverse backgrounds, especially those with demonstrable commitments to marginalized communities on whom EJ policies often center.To accomplish this, the program will leverage North Carolina State University's critical mass of EJ scholars and existing partnerships with community-based organizations and Native American Tribes.Careful recruiting, mentoring, and training will ensure that Fellows graduate prepared to enter a workforce as scientists capable of evaluating EJ implications of their work throughout their careers.Community-based internships, an international experience, and specialized training will prepare Fellows for future leadership.Success will be evaluated against the USDA goal of "increas(ing) the number, quality and diversity of students in the food, agricultural and related sciences."
Animal Health Component
20%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
80%
Applied
20%
Developmental
0%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
1120399205020%
1310613107020%
8036099206020%
1410410200020%
9036099303020%
Knowledge Area
803 - Sociological and Technological Change Affecting Individuals, Families, and Communities; 112 - Watershed Protection and Management; 903 - Communication, Education, and Information Delivery; 141 - Air Resource Protection and Management; 131 - Alternative Uses of Land;

Subject Of Investigation
0399 - Watersheds and river basins, general; 6099 - People and communities, general/other; 0410 - Air; 0613 - Mixed conifer-broadleaf forests;

Field Of Science
2050 - Hydrology; 1070 - Ecology; 2000 - Chemistry; 2060 - Geography; 3030 - Information and communication;
Goals / Objectives
Environmental justice (EJ) is an academic and policy framework intended to evaluate the societal costs of decisions about environmental management, food production, and other activities within the scope of agricultural and natural resources.Although EJ work often focuses on inequities in environmental conditions experienced by low-income or racially marginalized communities, agricultural and natural resources scientists rarely encounter EJ in their academic training, research, or hands-on practical experiences - even at land-grant institutions, whose missions include deep community engagement and service.This program will recruit and mentor three Ph.D. Fellows for an innovative experience that integrates EJ theory, practice, and methods into training within the Targeted Expertise Shortage Area (TESA) of Forest Resources.Fellows will undertake coursework and dissertation research in pursuit of a Ph.D. in Forestry and Environmental Resources and will receive hands-on training through external experiences.The program will recruit Fellows from diverse backgrounds, especially those with demonstrable commitments to marginalized communities on whom EJ policies often center.To accomplish this, the program will leverage North Carolina State University's critical mass of EJ scholars and existing partnerships with community-based organizations and Native American Tribes.Careful recruiting, mentoring, and training will ensure that Fellows graduate prepared to enter a workforce as scientists capable of evaluating EJ implications of their work throughout their careers.Community-based internships, an international experience, and specialized training will prepare Fellows for future leadership.Success will be evaluated against the USDA goal of "increas(ing) the number, quality and diversity of students in the food, agricultural and related sciences."
Project Methods
New doctoral students (Fellows)will gain core competencies in Forest Resources through the department's Ph.D. curriculum, which includes at least 72 credit hours of instruction (classroom, laboratory, field), independent study, and guided research inquiry in both natural and social sciences.With the exception of a required research methods course and departmental seminar, each Ph.D. student's curriculum is customized in consultation with the student's advisor and committee.Specific courses are selected to build expertise in the student's focal area (e.g., hydrology, ecology, climate change) as well as complementary expertise (e.g., scientific writing, coding). Students must also select a minor, which normally requires 12 hours of classroom instruction.An emerging set of courses in environmental justice (EJ) and related areas provides a unique opportunity for Fellows to take advantage of NCSU's Interdisciplinary Graduate Minor, which allows students to customize a minor curriculum across two or more disciplines.By linking existing EJ courses with related courses at NCSU or MoA universities, the Interdisciplinary Minor will allow Fellows to acquire training in EJ as part of their Ph.D. curriculum.Examples of graduate courses from outside of the department include: Women and Gender Studies (NCSU), Theory and Practice of Oral History (NCSU), Cultural and Political Ecology (UNC), and Environmental Law (Duke).Fellows will meet regularly with their individual advisors and advisory committees to assess progress toward curricular requirements and to develop the scope of dissertation research.Advisory committees will evaluate academic performance through oral and written comprehensive exams required for Ph.D. candidacy, and they will evaluate the student's overall dissertation. The college's Office of Diversity and Inclusionwill be available to provide counseling services to Fellows throughout their course of study at NCSU, and Fellows will also be full members of their advisors' research groups, which meet formally (e.g., paper discussions, presentations) and function as social units in the department. NCSU also offers cultural, religious, and identity-based organizations, as well as "First in the Pack," a support organization for first-generation students.This holistic network of care, combined with financial support from the program, will ensure that Fellows are well equipped to succeed at NCSU.Each Fellow will complete a community-based internship intended to complement academic training in both Forest Resources and EJ and to challenge Fellows in areas beyond the TESA.To accomplish this, Fellows will work with their advisory committees to identify a partner organization to address a local, community-defined challenge. This project deliberately focuses on community-based internships rather than industry-based internships because of the prominent role that community-based, participatory research plays in EJ research and practice. Moreover, community-based organizations often have fewer resources and less capacity than industry to carry out research or technical work.NCSU has extensive partnerships with community-based organizations throughout North Carolina, and PDs are involved in maintaining many of these partnerships through research or outreach collaborations. PDs will work closely with Fellows and organizational representatives to identify appropriate internship matches.Internships will involve small projects co-developed with community-based organizations following the Scope-Match-Solve-Share model of the American Geophysical Union's Thriving Earth Exchange. Logistics will vary by project, and internships will last approximately one semester. Fellows will carry out internships during the second or third year, committing approximately 15 hours/week.Deliverables will include a chapter (or part of a chapter) in each Fellow's dissertation focusing on scholarly or technical aspects of the project.Fellows will be encouraged to publish this work as a journal article with community partners as coauthors.Fellows will also co-develop extension or outreach materials for use in communities.Following the internships, NCSU will host a series of meetings in which Fellows will share outcomes from their internship projects with communities.Meetings will be based on the "Science Café" model.A second experiential component is a 4-6 week IRTA experience slated for the summer between Fellows' second and third years.The IRTA will broaden Fellows' perspectives on EJ and technical disciplines by exploring international dimensions of these subjects.Fellows will be encouraged to leverage NCSU collaborations with UNAG in Catacamas, Honduras. One ongoing collaboration is a citizen science project to assess seasonal trends in streamflow and water quality in the Talgua River watershed, which drains much of the Sierra de Agalta range and supplies drinking water to rural communities. Fellows may also develop social science or natural science research questions around other issues including natural disasters or climate change.Fellows will develop IRTA projects starting early in the second year, beginning with a research proposal crafted in consultation with advisors and UNAG collaborators.Fellows will present proposals and receive feedback during the 1-credit seminar.Although UNAG that is an ideal host for the IRTA, Fellows may arrive at NCSU with other international connections or a desire to work elsewhere.With this in mind, Fellows may propose alternative IRTA experiences.The NCSU Office of Global Engagement offers a range of logistical and planning services to students and faculty who travel abroad for research, education, or outreach.The IRTA will provide an opportunity for Fellows to practice the scholarship of EJ with an international dimension. As with the internship, the IRTA project will become a chapter (or part of a chapter) in each Fellow's dissertation.Fellows will be encouraged to publish academic articles co-authored with international partners and will help produce extension or outreach materials.Fellows who work at UNAG or elsewhere in Latin America will have abilities to present their work at NCSU's annual Latin American Research Symposium. The internship and IRTA experience both provide opportunities for Fellows to network and build new mentoring relationships with community and international partners.Both experiences will allow Fellows to publish interdisciplinary scholarship and engage in other scientific communication.Following both experiences, Fellows will also gain insight on building and maintaining community partnerships to address EJ and related issues, both domestically and abroad.Scientific communication training will be woven throughout the project as an additional experiential learning aspect. This training will emphasize the important role of science communication to nonscientists in community-engaged research while also recognizing that students from underrepresented backgrounds entering the STEM workforce often desire to communicate science to nonscientists and value contributions of art and design to the sciences. NCSU is a leader in public science, a field that includes citizen science, science outreach, and science communication. Co-PD Katti (a member of the Chancellor's Faculty Excellence Program faculty cluster for Leadership in Public Science) will work with Fellows on an ongoing basis to develop science communication and other public science skills that complement EJ. The work will leverage existing resources and collaborations with organizations such as the NC Museum of Natural Sciences (where Katti is a Research Affiliate), and the NC Cooperative Extension.Fellows will have opportunities to develop citizen science projects, train for Science Cafés and public speaking, or create podcasts and other media.

Progress 01/15/23 to 01/14/24

Outputs
Target Audience:We recruited three Fellows, who enrolled in our National Needs Fellowship PhD Program in May, 2022. The Fellows have completed their MS degrees at North Carolina Central University, Antioch University, and North Carolina State University (receiving a MS from Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management). The students matriculated in their courses. They are taking a mix of social science and natural science courses to prepare for work in the environmental justice realm. The students continue to have opportunities to participate in environmental justice-related meetings for additional enrichment, and each of the faculty participated in meetings to inform mentorship of the students. Drs. Richmond-Bryant and Katti have developed environmental justice-focused courses for the students to matriculate in, and they are working with each of the students to continue development of individualized plans for their dissertations in different aspects of environmental resource management policy and assessment. The students have begun their research. Susana Mateos received Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval for to conduct interviews in Costa Rica to study ecological knowledge of refugees. She conducted that study over the summer and is planning the next phase of her research. Tira Beckham is starting her work with a scoping review of the literature on disparities in environmental policy outcomes in extraterritorial jurisdictions in North Carolina. She will conduct several Geographic Information Systems Analyses to further that work. Rachel Wood received IRB approval to interview community members in Ahoskie, NC on how they have been impacted by a wood pellet facility. She is preparing to perform an environmental assessment of the fate and transport of emissions in the area. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Professional meetings: Tira L. Beckham attended the C*Sci 2023 Annual Conference in Tempe, AZ on May 22-26, 2023 and presented, "Reimagining Researcher - Community Collaboration Potential" in the session "Equitable Research Partnership Tools for Communities and Researchers" featuring the Citizen Science Association Environmental Justice Practitioners Working Group (Now the Association for the Advancement of Participatory Sciences). Susana Mateos attended the North American Association of Environmental Education (NAAEE) and co-facilitated the half-dayLeadingforChangeWorkshop on the NAAEE Community Engagement Guidelines in October, 2023. Susana Mateos attended the 2023 Nature of Place Symposium "Faith and the Environment" in June, 2023 Rachel Wood attended the 2023 NC BREATHE Conference in Charlotte, NC on April 5-7, 2023. Rachel Wood attended the American Geophysical Union Annual Conference in San Francisco, CA on December 11-15, 2023 and presented, "Heavy Metal Analysis of Water and Sediment in the Lumber River in North Carolina and Impact on Nematode Health". Dr. Richmond-Bryant attended the Pacific Basin Consortium on October 30-31, 2023 in Baton Rouge, LA and presented "Associations of COVID-19 Hospitalizations, ICU Admissions and Mortality with Black and White Race and their Mediation by Air Pollution and Other Risk Factors". Dr. Richmond-Bryant attended the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Superfund Research Program Annual Meeting on December 4-6, 2023 in Albuquerque, NM, where another of her doctoral students was recognized for participation in a research externship. Dr. Madhusudan Katti attended the Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America on August 6-11, 2023 in Portland, OR, where he shared a coauthored paper on the relationship between wealth, power, and biodiversity in cities. Dr. Madhusudan Katti was invited to be the Opening Plenary Keynote Speaker at the International Conference on Ecology and Transportation on June 5-8, 2023 in Burlington, VT, where he spoke about environmental and social justice contexts and implications of transportation networks. Dr. Madhusudan Katti was invited to speak about Decolonizing Science at a number of venues during 2023, including: University of Oregon (Jan 27, 2023), Netherlands Institute of Ecology (Jul 3, 2023), Wageningen University (Sep 7, 2023), and Columbia University (Oct 3, 2023). Dr. Madhusudan Katti further developed his workshop on Five Shifts for Decolonizing Research Practice, and conducted it at the invitation of: University of British Columbia, Masters in Geomatics and Environmental Management program, Mar 2, 2023, and Oct 6 and 13, 2023 (online); University of Georgia, Odum School of Ecology, April 7, 2023 in Athens, GA; North Carolina State University, HHMI Inclusive Excellence Program, April 25, 2023 in Raleigh, NC; American Journal of Biological Anthropology, special issue manuscript workshop, Oct 9-12, 2023 in Charlotte, NC; and the IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education, Ph.D. Course on Decolonising Science, Nov 27-Dec 1, 2023 in Delft, Netherlands. In addition, Drs. Katti and Richmond-Bryant as well as all three students participated in the North Carolina Environmental Justice Summit on Oct 20-21, 2023 in Whitakers, NC; and attended the Toxicology and Environmental Health Symposium at Duke University on Oct 27, 2023 in Durham, NC. Awards and distinctions: Tira Beckham was awarded the Katherine S. McCarter Graduate Student Policy Award by the Ecological Society of America. This award allows for hands-on experience and training in policy as part of a cohort. The experience included a trip to Washington, DC in April, 2023, training in policy and communications, interaction with ecologists employed by the federal government, and meetings with current policymakers about funding for biological and ecological sciences. Susana Mateos was appointed to chair the North American Bird Conservation Initiative's (NABCI) Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice Community of Practice committee in August, 2023. She coordinated two webinars on Decolonizing Conservation for the NABCI Community of Practice in October, 2023. Susana Mateos was awarded North Carolina State University's Laarman International Gift Fund for travel to Costa Rica in July and August, 2023for conducting community interviews as part of her research. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Dr. Richmond-Bryant's and Dr. Katti's research has been submitted to the peer-reviewed literature and through reports developed specifically for community members in her research. Ms. Beckham's, Ms. Wood's, and Dr. Katti'sresearch has been presented in scientific meetings. Dr. Richmond-Bryant presents her findings in reports developed for partner communities. These communications methods are now being incorporated into the curricula for the NNF students: LSU Superfund Research Center. Report to The Rock and Colfax Communities on Air Quality and Health. March 2023. LSU Superfund Research Center. LSU Superfund Research Center. Report to The Rock and Colfax Communities on Air Quality and Health. August 2023. LSU Superfund Research Center. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The students will continue to take classes during the Spring, 2024 semester. They will take their written comprehensive examinations during the Summer or early Fall, 2024 semester. Students are simultaneously working on their research proposals, which will be presented to their committees. The target date for proposal presentation is December, 2024. Students will then be entirely focused on conducting their dissertation research and writing their dissertations.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The three National Needs Fellowship students continued their coursework during Spring, 2023 and Fall, 2023. Coursework has continued to combine natural and social sciences to prepare students for their research. All three have remained in good academic standing. The students have made progress in forming their doctoral dissertation committees. Susana Mateos and Tira Beckham have recruited four faculty members for their committee and have each met with the committees at least once. Rachel Wood has recruited three committee members and is in the process of identifying a fourth individual with a specialty in toxicological sciences to provide expert advice for her research. Each of the students have begun the initial stages of their research. Susana Mateos constructed a survey for a refugee community within Costa Rica to gauge their ecological knowledge about the surrounding area. She received Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval for her plans and conducted community interviews over the summer. Susana received a Laarman International Gift Fund award from the North Carolina State University (NCSU) College of Natural Resources (CNR) to support this trip. Tira has begun to perform a systematic review of the peer-reviewed literature about environmental justice issues specific to extra-territorial jurisdictions. Rachel has written an interview script for community interviews on the impacts of a wood pellet facility's emissions on the Ahoskie, NC community and received IRB approval for her plans. She has established connections with the Meherrin Tribal Council and a local church to recruit the population for her interviews. Curriculum planning: Drs. Richmond-Bryant and Katti continued to develop course selections for the incoming students to balance social and natural sciences. The 1-credit Spring, 2023 seminar, Discussions in EJ Practice, enrolled four graduate students including Ms. Mateos, Beckham, and Wood. This seminar was focused on the practice of community-based participatory research with communities experiencing environmental injustices through a structured exploration of the peer-reviewed literature. The seminars developed during the 2022-2023 academic year were updated into a 3-credit course, Environmental Justice, for other NCSU graduate students, offered within the Forestry and Environmental Resources department. This course introduces the students to fundamental concepts in the theory and practice of environmental justice as well as helps the students to refine their research skills. Five graduate students enrolled in this course during Fall 2023. Resource supplementation: Drs. Richmond-Bryant and Katti developed a white paper for the Associate Vice Provost of University Interdisciplinary Programs to describe the program funded by the National Needs Fellowship grant in Spring, 2022. We included a request for additional funds to procure supplies for the students' studies and to support a fourth year of matriculation for the students. The original three-year timeline is overly ambitious for most doctoral students. The request was granted by the Provost during the Spring, 2023 semester.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Richmond-Bryant J, Odera M, Rivers III L, Subra W, Vallee B, Kelley B, Cramer JA, Wilson A, Tran J, Beckham T, Irving J, Reams M. Oral histories document impacts of a hazardous waste thermal treatment facility on exposures, personal activities, and community mobilization. Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability. 2024; 29:57-73. DOI://10.1080/13549839.2023.2249498.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Odera MA, Kelley B, Rivers III L, Wilson A, Tran J, Patel K, Vallee B, Subra W, Cramer JA, Irving JK, Reams M, Richmond-Bryant J. An oral history study as a tool for understanding environmental justice aspects of human exposures to hazardous waste thermal treatment emissions in Colfax, LA. Accepted, Environmental Justice. 2023; DOI://10.1089/env.2023.0003.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Yu Q, Cao W, Hamer D, Urbanek N, Straif-Bourgeois S, Cormier S, Ferguson T, Richmond-Bryant J. Associations of COVID-19 Hospitalizations, ICU Admissions, and Mortality with Black and White Race and Their Mediation by Air Pollution and Other Risk Factors in the Louisiana Industrial Corridor, March 2020August 2021. International Journal for Environmental Research and Public Health. 2023; 20:4611. DOI://10.3390/ijerph20054611.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Mathieu M, Gray J, Richmond-Bryant J. Spatial Associations of Long-term Exposure to Diesel Particulate Matter with Seasonal and Annual Mortality Due to COVID-19 in the Contiguous United States. BMC Public Health. 2023;23:423. DOI://10.1186/s12889-023-15064-5.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Mathieu M, Odera M, Ofori-Boadu A, Richmond-Bryant J. Inclusive excellence through digital learning: An undergraduate research experience to pilot cross-institutional collaboration between a historically black university and a predominantly white institution. Intercultural Education. 2023; DOI://10.1080/14675986.2023.2180621.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2024 Citation: Kamakura RP, Bai J, Sheel V, and Katti M. Biodiversity is not a Luxury: unpacking wealth and power to complicate our understanding of urban biodiversity. In review Ecosphere. 2024.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2024 Citation: Bai J, Caslin M, Katti M. How did the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic anthropause impact bird occupancy in North Carolina? In review, PLOS ONE. 2024.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2024 Citation: Caslin M, Katti M, Rowa, E, Mulvey KL, Orcut, D. Utilizing 360� Photography and Virtual Reality to Analyze Forest Habitat Structure following a Major Hurricane. In review, Methods in Ecology and Evolution. 2024.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: Kumar P, Debele S, Khalili S, Halios CH, Sahani J, Aghamohammadi N, Andrade M, de F.. Athanassiadou M, Bhui K, Calvillo N, Cao S-J, Coulon, Edmondson JL, Fletcher D, de Freitas ED, Guo H, Hort MC, Katti M, Kjeldson TR, Lehmann S, Locosselli GM, Malham SK, Morawska L, Parajuli R, Rogers CDF, Yao R, Wang F, Wenk J, Jones L. Urban heat mitigation by green and blue infrastructure: a review of drivers, effectiveness, and future needs. Provisionally accepted, The Innovation. 2024.
  • Type: Book Chapters Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2024 Citation: Kar Gupta K, Katti M. The Urban Slender Loris Project: a case study in urban conservation. Book chapter in Urban Biodiversity and Equity: Conservation, Management, and Environmental Justice in Cities, Max Lambert and Chris Schell, editors. Oxford University Press. 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Beckham TL. Reimagining Researcher - Community Collaboration Potential in the session Equitable Research Partnership Tools for Communities and Researchers featuring the Citizen Science Association Environmental Justice Practitioners Working Group (Now the Association for the Advancement of Participatory Sciences). C*Sci 2023 Annual Conference, Tempe, AZ, May 22-26, 2023.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Wood, RE. Heavy Metal Analysis of Water and Sediment in the Lumber River in North Carolina and Impact on Nematode Health. American Geophysical Union Annual Conference, San Francisco, CA, December 11-15, 2023.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Richmond-Bryant J, Yu Q, Cao W, Hamer D, Urbanek N, Straif-Bourgeois S, Cormier S, Ferguson T. "Associations of COVID-19 Hospitalizations, ICU Admissions and Mortality with Black and White Race and their Mediation by Air Pollution and Other Risk Factors" Pacific Coast Basin Focus Meeting. Baton Rouge, LA, October 30-31, 2023.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: Richmond-Bryant J, Wilson A. Increasing disparities in air pollution health burdens in the United States: A concerning trend for PM2.5 and a path forward (INVITED PERSPECTIVE). Provisionally accepted, Environmental Health Perspectives. 2024.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2024 Citation: Yu Q, Hagan J, Wu X, Richmond-Bryant J, Urbanek N, and Li B. High-Dimensional Bayesian Mediation Analysis with Adaptive Laplace Priors. In review, Statistics and Interface. 2023.


Progress 01/15/22 to 01/14/23

Outputs
Target Audience:We recruited three Fellows, who enrolled in our National Needs Fellowship PhD Program in May, 2022. The Fellows have completed their MS degrees at North Carolina Central University, Antioch University, and North Carolina State University (receiving a MS from Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management). The students matriculated in their courses. They are taking a mix of social science and natural science courses to prepare for work in the environmental justice realm. The students had opportunities to participate in environmental justice-related meetings for additional enrichment, and each of the faculty participated in meetings to inform mentorship of the students. Drs. Richmond-Bryant and Katti have developed environmental justice-focused courses for the students to matriculate in, and they are working with each of the students to develop individualized plans for their dissertations in different aspects of environmental resource management policy and assessment. Changes/Problems:One of the students, Ms. Rachel Wood, had a delay in completion of her MS. She simultaneously matriculated at NCSU to begin the doctoral program while completing and successfully defending her MS thesis from NC Central University this fall. This limited her progress for the fall, but we are making plans to get her on track this spring, starting with a field trip to a proposed research site in early January, dissertation planning, and registration in more classes for the spring semester. The original three-year timeline is overly ambitious for most doctoral students, especially for students who are juggling doctoral studies with navigating graduate school from underrepresented backgrounds. Drs. Richmond-Bryant and Matti developed a white paper for the Associate Vice Provost of University Interdisciplinary Programs to describe the program funded by the National Needs Fellowship grant. We included a request for additional funds to procure supplies for the students' studies and to support a fourth year of matriculation for the students. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Spring, 2022: Dr. Katti attended the Annual Meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) on January 3-7 in Phoenix, AZ and conducted a workshop on decolonizing science for the SICB's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee. Dr. Katti attended the 69th Annual Meeting of The Western Section of The Wildlife Society on February 7-11 (virtual) and gave an invited talk, "Connecting Environmental and Social Justice". Summer, 2022: All three students (Tira Beckham, Rachel Wood, and Susana Mateos) attended a training session with the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network in use of the PhotoVoice tool for capturing community insights. Dr. Katti attended the INTECOL 2022 conference (attended virtually, but the main conference was in Geneva, Switzerland) on August 28-September 2 and gave the invited presentation, "Five Shifts towards Decoloniality and Anti-Oppressive Praxis in Ecology". Fall, 2022: Two students (Tira Beckham and Rachel Wood) and Dr. Katti attended the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network annual meeting on October 14 and 15 in Whitakers, NC. One student (Susana Mateos) attended the North American Association of Environmental Education annual meeting on October 12-15 in Tucson, AZ. There, she co-facilitated two sessions (1-Community-Centered Environmental Education: NANEE Community Engagement Guidelines Leaders Workshop and 2-Let's Get Real About It: Centering Environmental Justice and Community in Environmental Engagement). Dr. Richmond-Bryant attended the Health Effects Institute Environmental Justice Workshop on October 20-21 in Atlanta, GA. She also attended the Louisiana State University Superfund Research Center Dellinger Symposium on February 23-24 in Baton Rouge, LA and the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences Environmental Health Sciences Core Center meeting on July 13-15. In each of these meetings, she had an opportunity to interact with community leaders, government researchers, and academic researchers on studies of environmental justice and community-based participatory research. The knowledge gained from these meetings will be transferred to the students as they commence their research. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Dr. Richmond-Bryant's research has been submitted to the peer-reviewed literature and through reports developed specifically for community members in her research. These methods are now being incorporated into the curricula for the NNF students: LSU Superfund Research Center. Report to The Rock and Colfax Communities on Air Quality and Health. March 2022. LSU Superfund Research Center. LSU Superfund Research Center. Report to The Rock and Colfax Communities on Air Quality and Health. September 2022. LSU Superfund Research Center. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The students will continue to take classes for the next year. We hope to use this next year to help the students refine their research plans and start the process of performing an extensive literature review. Students will have the option of participating in an internship in Summer 2023. To facilitate this, we will connect students with not-for-profit organizations that do service work relevant to their planned research. In these roles, the students will gain skills in listening to community voices and identifying themes for continued study.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Matriculation: Spring, 2022: Offers were prepared for the three selected students, and we communicated with the students to facilitate their move to Raleigh and North Carolina State University, if needed. The three students were previously enrolled in master's degree programs at North Carolina Central University (a Historically Black University), Antioch University, and North Carolina State University. Summer, 2022: The students enrolled during the Summer II session. They participated in a summer seminar to be introduced to concepts around environmental justice as well as to start thinking about their own research. Fall, 2022: The students matriculated in their courses. They are taking a mix of social science and natural science courses to prepare for work in the environmental justice realm. Drs. Richmond-Bryant and Katti designed a one-credit environmental justice seminar to help the students learn to engage in the literature. This includes reading and discussion of literature and performing a scoping literature review. The course was developed for the National Needs Fellowship students. In addition to the three students, five other graduate students in the Forestry and Environmental Resources department are enrolled in this course. The students are starting to formulate their research questions for their dissertation work, in part with the hypothesis development work we are doing as part of the scoping review process. Curriculum planning: Drs. Richmond-Bryant and Katti continued to develop course selections for the incoming students to balance social and natural sciences. Syllabi were developed for the summer, fall, and spring environmental justice seminars: National Needs Fellowship Doctoral Seminar - Discussions in EJ Research, Discussions in EJ Research, and Discussions in EJ Practice. These seminars introduce the students to fundamental concepts in the theory and practice of environmental justice as well as helps the students to refine their research skills. The summer course was held just for the students as an orientation to studying environmental justice at NC State, while the second and third seminars are open to all graduate students and was structured around an exploration of seminal environmental justice literature. Resource supplementation: Drs. Richmond-Bryant and Matti developed a white paper for the Associate Vice Provost of University Interdisciplinary Programs to describe the program funded by the National Needs Fellowship grant. We included a request for additional funds to procure supplies for the students' studies and to support a fourth year of matriculation for the students. The original three-year timeline is overly ambitious for most doctoral students. Advisement: Drs. Richmond-Bryant and Matti are working with each of the students to develop plans for their dissertation work focused on different aspects of environmental resource management policy and assessment.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Richmond-Bryant J, Odera M, Subra W, Vallee B, Tucker C, Oliver C, Wilson A, Tran J, Kelley B, Cramer JA, Irving J, Guo C, Reams M. A community-integrated geographic information system study of air pollution exposure impacts in Colfax, LA. Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability. 2022;27:728-746. DOI://10.1080/13549839.2022.2075840.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2023 Citation: Richmond-Bryant J, Odera M, Rivers III L, Subra W, Vallee B, Kelley B, Cramer JA, Wilson A, Tran J, Beckham T, Irving J, Reams M. Oral histories document impacts of a hazardous waste thermal treatment facility on exposures, personal activities, and community mobilization. In review, Society and Natural Resources.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2023 Citation: Mathieu M, Gray J, Richmond-Bryant J. Spatial Associations of Long-term Exposure to Diesel Particulate Matter with Seasonal and Annual Mortality Due to COVID-19 in the Contiguous United States. In review, BMC Public Health.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2023 Citation: Odera MA, Kelley B, Rivers III L, Wilson A, Tran J, Patel K, Vallee B, Subra W, Cramer JA, Irving JK, Reams M, Richmond-Bryant J. An oral history study as a tool for understanding environmental justice aspects of human exposures to hazardous waste thermal treatment emissions in Colfax, LA. In review, Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2023 Citation: Yu Q, Cao W, Hamer D, Urbanek N, Straif-Bourgeois S, Cormier S, Ferguson T, Richmond-Bryant J. Risk factors among COVID cases, hospitalizations, and deaths for a Louisiana cohort. In review, Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.


Progress 01/15/21 to 01/14/22

Outputs
Target Audience:We have recruited three Fellows, who will enroll in our National Needs Fellowship PhD Program in May, 2022. The Fellows will all have completed their MS degrees by May at North Carolina Central University, Antioch University, and North Carolina State University (receiving a MS from Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management). We advertised among national organizations and through LinkedIn and other networking platforms in Spring, 2021. Among those applicants, we interviewed two and made an offer to one. During Fall, 2021, continued recruiting took place online, coupled with additional recruiting via personal contacts to Historically Black Universities and within NC State resulted in two additional interviews. Three additional candidates were identified, and two were invited to matriculate as a Fellow. All three invited Fellows have accepted their offers. Changes/Problems:As of January 1, 2022, Dr. Ryan Emmanuel, the current Principal Investigator, will be taking a new position at Duke University. To transition, Dr. Jennifer Richmond-Bryant, a current co-Principal Investigator on the National Needs Fellowship grant, has taken over as lead Principal Investigator as of December 15, 2021. Dr. Richmond-Bryant is currently a Project Director on a National Institutes of Health Superfund Research Center grant, serving as the Principal Investigator of the sub-award at North Carolina State University. She has also served as Principal Investigator or co-Investigator or other grants. She is an involved mentor to students, serving as the advisor to a masters student and a doctoral student and so is well-qualified to lead this award. The transition will happen one month prior to Dr. Emmanuel's move so that Dr. Richmond-Bryant can consult with Dr. Emmanuel on matters related to management of the NNF grant. As of January 1, 2022, Dr. Louie Rivers III is taking a leave of absence from NC State following a two-year appointment to the U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development. Dr. Rivers will continue to consult informally with the NNF team and will reengage when he returns from his leave of absence in 2024. On November 17, 2021, Dr. Katherine Martin notified the NC State team through Dr. Jennifer Richmond-Bryant that she would like to step back from her work on the grant, effective immediately. During that meeting, she noted the stress of the past two years and stated that she thought it would be best to cease her involvement. This change is being processed. These personnel changes have been disruptive to the planning and Fellow recruiting processes. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Spring, 2022: We will develop syllabi and lesson plans for our cohort seminar class. Fellows will be required to take this 1-credit class each semester, and the class will be designed to "grow" with the Fellows. The course will include activities to support cohort building and mental health while simultaneously preparing the Fellows for their projects. Summer, 2022: We will welcome the cohort. The Fellows will take the seminar, and cohort building activities will also be held. Fall, 2022: The Fellows will take a full load of courses, including the seminar, a social science course, a technical science course, the Departmental seminar, and a one-credit research course to start formulating project ideas. We will continue to hold cohort building activities outside of the classroom.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Recruiting: Spring, 2021: Fellow recruiting began. We distributed the position to professional contacts and posted to social media. Eighteen candidates applied. Among those, several were ineligible because either they did not meet the University's requirement that a PhD applicant holds an MS or they were not US residents. We identified four eligible and qualified applicants but several indicated that they would not be ready to matriculate until at least Spring, 2022. Fall, 2021: We reached out to each of those applicants to confirm their continued interest in the Fellowship. Two remained interested, and both were interviewed. The project team intensified their recruiting strategy by reaching out to colleagues at local Historically Black Universities and other academic institutions. Three additional candidates were identified this way and were also interviewed. Three offers were made in November, 2021, and all three candidates accepted their offers. Because two of the three candidates were still at the final stages of their MS degrees and the third candidate accepted a position with a non-profit organization for the Spring, all agreed to matriculate in May, 2022. Another candidate was interviewed and thought to be a strong possibility for the cohort. If other means of supporting this student are identified, we believe that he would also benefit from the cohort model. Accepted Fellows convened via Zoom meeting on December 7 to become acquainted. Curriculum planning: Summer, 2021: In the proposal, we lay out a plan to provide the Fellows with training in both technical specialties and social sciences to equip them for using an intentional framework for studying EJ problems. Dr. Grays and Dr. Rivers possess great expertise in social sciences and so worked together to identify a suite of social science courses that would provide a foundation for the Fellows. Fall, 2021: Initial planning of a series of seminar courses began. The team envisions the course as both a safe space for the Fellows to build relationships with one another and a place to learn skills such as project planning, critical evaluation of information, and scientific writing to prepare the Fellows for success throughout their doctoral studies. Maintaining the safe space mantra throughout the seminar series will provide a support system for the Fellows as they engage in this deep learning process.

Publications