Mission
The mission of the Community Engagement Core (CEC) of the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology (CEET) is to engage communities, health care professionals, decision makers, and individuals in a collaborative process to select problems that CEET research teams and its network with other Environmental Health Science Core Centers can investigate to provide tools that will eliminate or mitigate adverse public health impacts to vulnerable populations.
Marilyn Howarth, MD, FACOEM
Director
Phone: 215-808-2165
E-mail: howarthmv@gmail.com
Dr. Marilyn Howarth’s career in Public Health began when she was an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer at the Centers of Disease Control in Atlanta. While an EIS officer she worked with communities and government agencies to investigate and tackle occupational and environmental problems. After leaving the CDC, Dr. Howarth worked with Cooper Hospital in Camden, NJ re-shaping their Occupational Health efforts by reaching out to employers to provide medical services to their workers. In 1995 she joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania as the Director of Consultation Services for the Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. In that role, she published papers, taught courses, performed worksite evaluations and helped patients and communities with the effects of environmental exposures. Dr. Howarth has extensive experience evaluating and treating patients with exposure to heavy metals, solvents, mold, respiratory allergens and irritants, and musculoskeletal trauma. Dr. Howarth has participated with CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the National Institutes of Health and the Camden County Technical Advisory Board to work on topics as diverse as latex allergy, the health effects of air pollution, and lead and radiological contamination. She is a past president of the Pennsylvania Occupational and Environmental Medical Society and a former member of the Board of Directors of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. She is currently a member of the PHILAPOSH Technical Advisory Board, which helps unions with concerns about exposures on the job. She is a founding professor of the University of Pennsylvania’s Masters in Public Health Environmental and Occupational Health course and provides educational programs on Environmental Health topics to community and employee groups.
Richard Pepino, MS, MSS
Lecturer
E-mail: rpepino@sas.upenn.edu
Mr. Pepino is Coordinator of the Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) courses in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. Mr. Pepino has Master’s degrees in Biology and Science Education, and is Director of the Public Policy Program at Franklin and Marshall College. Previously he spent 25 years with US EPA Region III, where he was Director of Strategic Planning, Chief of Environmental Impact Analysis, and Associate Director of the Office of Watersheds. His interests include public policy related to environmental health and alternative teaching methods in urban public education.
Adrian Wood, MPH
Program Coordinator
Phone: 215-898-6221
E-mail: adrianlw@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Ms. Wood has had a longstanding interest in environmental health and community engagement which strengthened as she came to Philadelphia as a graduate student practicing public health. She has worked in fostering partnerships around the greater Philadelphia area as the Program Coordinator of the Community Engagement Core. Ms. Wood has a B.S. in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Masters of Public Health from the University of Pennsylvania.
CEC Members
Table 1: Stakeholder Advisory Board: University and CEET Members
Board Member: | Affiliation: | Thematic Area: |
Maria Andrews, MS | Associate Director of Undergraduate Programs, Department of Earth and Environmental Science | Community Engagement |
Andrea Apter, MD, MSc | Chief, Allergy and Immunology Section, Presbyterian Medical Center, Professor of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine | Air Pollution & Lung Health, Community Engagement, |
Fran Barg, PhD, MEd | Professor, Family Medicine & Community Health, Perelman School of Medicine | Environmental Exposures and Cancer, Community Engagement |
Michael Beers, MD | Professor of Medicine, Section of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care, Perelman School of Medicine, Leader, CEET | Air Pollution & Lung Health, Community Engagement, |
Ian A. Blair, PhD | A.N. Richards Professor of Pharmacology Investigator, Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Environmental Exposures and Cancer thematic area lead | Environmental Exposures and Cancer |
Marisa S. Bartolomei, PhD | Perelman Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology, Perelman School of Medicine. Windows-of-Susceptibility thematic area lead | Windows-of-Susceptibility |
Jeffrey Field, PhD | Professor of Pharmacology, Director, TREES Program, Perelman School of Medicine, CEET | Community Engagement |
George Gerton, PhD | Research Professor of Reproductive Biology in Obstetrics and Gynecology, Perelman School of Medicine, CEET | Windows of Susceptibility, Community Engagement |
Ira Harkavy, PhD | Founding Director and Associate Vice President at Netter Center for Community- Campus Partnerships | Community Engagement |
Marilyn Howarth, MD, FACOEM | Adjunct Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Pharmacology, Perelman School of Medicine, Director, Community Engagement Core, CEET | Air Pollution & Lung Health, Environmental Exposures and Cancer, Windows of Susceptibility, Environmental Neuroscience, Community Engagement |
Michael Z. Levy, PhD | Associate Professor of Epidemiology, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Perelman School of Medicine | Community Engagement |
Jianghong Liu, PhD, RN, FAAN | Director of the NIH-funded China Jintan Child Health Project, Associate Professor of Nursing, Associate Professor of Public Health, Perelman School of Medicine | Environmental Neuroscience, Community Engagement |
Sharon McGrath-Morrow, MBA, MD | Professor of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Air Pollution & Lung Health thematic area lead | Air Pollution & Lung Health |
Howard Neukrug, PE, BCEE, D.WRE | Executive Director of The Water Center, Professional Practice Professor of Global Water Leadership, Earth and Environmental Science Department, University of Pennsylvania | Community Engagement |
Kevin Osterhoudt, MD, MSCE, FAAP, FAACT, FACMT | Professor of Pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine, Medical Director of the Poison Control Center, Emergency Medicine Attending Physician, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia | Environmental Neuroscience |
Trevor Penning, PhD | The Thelma Brown and Henry Charles Molinoff Professor of Pharmacology, Professor of Biochemistry & Biophysics and OB/GYN, Director Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology, Perelman School of Medicine | Air Pollution & Lung Health, Environmental Exposures and Cancer, Windows of Susceptibility, Community Engagement |
Richard Pepino, MS, MSS | Adjunct Faculty, Department of Earth and Environmental Science, School of Arts & Sciences, Lecturer, Community Engagement Core, CEET | Windows of Susceptibility, Environmental Neuroscience, Community Engagement |
Jennifer Pinto-Martin, PhD, MPH | Viola MacInnes/Independence Professor of Nursing, MPH Program Director | Environmental Neuroscience |
Pouné Saberi, MD, MPH | Clinical Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, Director, Philadelphia VA Medical Center Occupational Health | Community Engagement |
Rebecca Simmons, MD | Professor of Pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine, Deputy Director, CEET | Environmental Neuroscience, Community Engagement |
Adrian Wood, MPH | Program Coordinator, Community Engagement Core, CEET | Community Engagement |
Anil Vachani, MD, MS | Associate Professor of Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the Veteran’s Administration Medical Center, Director, Integrative Health Sciences Facility Core, CEET | Environmental Exposures and Cancer |
Sigrid C. Veasey, M.D. | Professor of Medicine, Perelman Schools of Medicine. Environmental Neuroscience thematic Area lead. | Environmental Neuroscience |
Table 2: Stakeholder Advisory Board: External Members (Representing Target Audiences)
Board Member: | Area of Expertise: | Affiliation: |
Susan Baldridge, M.Ed. | Community Stakeholder | Executive Director, Partnership for Public Health, Lancaster, PA |
Samantha (Fairchild) Beers, Esq. | Policy Maker | Director, U. S. EPA Mid-Atlantic Region, Office of Enforcement, Compliance and Environmental Justice |
Tyra Bryant-Stephens, MD | Health Care Provider | Director, Community Asthma Prevention Program, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia |
Margaret Cobb | Community Stakeholder | Eastwick Lower Darby Creek Area Community Advisory Group, Eastwick-Philadelphia, PA |
Jana Curtis | Community Stakeholder | Resident of Fishtown, Philadelphia |
Frank Finan | Community Stakeholder | Resident of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania |
Maurice Sampson | Community Stakeholder | Clean Water Action, Philadelphia |
Donna Henry, MS | Community Stakeholder | Director, Southwest Community Development Corporation, Philadelphia |
Jeffrey Martin, MD | Health Care Provider | Chair, Lancaster Lead Coalition, Residency Director, Family and Community Medicine, Lancaster General Hospital |
Joseph Otis Minott, JD | Policy Maker | Executive Director, Clean Air Council |
Dalton Paxman, PhD | Public Health Decision Maker | Regional Health Administrator (RHA) for the mid-Atlantic region, US Department of Health and Human Services |
Kassahun Sellassie, PhD P.E. | Policy Maker | Director, Air Management Services, City of Philadelphia |
Jerome Shabazz, MS | Community Stakeholder | Executive Director, Overbrook Environmental Education Center |
Sachin Shankar, P.E. | Policy Maker | Assistant Regional Director, PA Department of Environmental Protection Region 3 |
Rev. Horace Strand | Community Stakeholder | Chairman, Chester Environmental Partnership, Chester, PA |
Lora Werner, MPH | Policy Maker | Deputy Director, Department of Health, Delaware County |
Earl Wilson | Community Stakeholder | President, Eastwick Friends & Neighbors Coalition |
Alice Wright- Bailey | Community Stakeholder | Executive Director, Chester Environmental Partnership, Chester, PA |
Sharon Vargas | Community Stakeholder | Ambler Community Advisory Group, Ambler, PA |
Anil Nair, MD, MPH | Policy Maker | Pennsylvania Department of Health |
Robert Helverson, MS | Policy Maker | Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry |
Julie Miller, PhD, DABT | Policy Maker | Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry |
Rosemarie Halt RPh. MPH. | Policy Maker | Children First Health Policy Consultant |
Stakeholder Advisory Board (SAB)
Stakeholders work together with CEET to identify and solve environmental health problems. The CEC Stakeholder Advisory Board is composed of community members representing CEC’s target communities, University members, officials from the local, State, and Federal government, and representatives from environmental interest groups and other relevant organizations (see below). The Board meets semi-annually to ensure that CEC’s activities are designed to optimally meet the needs of communities, health care professionals, and policy makers in improving environmental and public health. The Board periodically reviews the effectiveness of CEC’s programs and advises CEC on recommended changes. In addition, the Board advises CEC on developments within the field of environmental health from the point of view of communities, health care professionals, decision makers, and the University. The Board also recommends new activities and directions as appropriate.
A complete list of members on the Stakeholder Advisory Board