Community Engagement Core

"Community Engagement Core: Community-University Partnerships for Environmental Public Health"

​The Community Engagement Core (CEC) is a community-university partnership to help reduce exposures to crossborder flows of hazardous wastes and to improve environmental public health in the San Diego-Tijuana city-region.  The CEC will utilize community-based participatory processes to engage and learn from community leaders how best to assist in building the capacity of vulnerable communities to identify, prioritize and address Superfund-related environmental health hazards and issues. We will do this with the help of a CEC advisory committee composed of community leaders, scientists, government officials and several grassroots environmental organizations active in the U.S.-Mexico border region. Our proposal has four aims:

(1) In consultation with our community partners, produce and update a toxicant survey and environmental health protection needs assessment for the Tijuana-San Diego border region based on literature, workshops, existing field research (e.g., source tracking of hazardous waste flows), and some testing of soil, sediment and water by our Research Translation Core;

(2) Launch a series of community workshops in partnership with Casa Familiar (San Diego) and Alter Terra (Tijuana), our two lead community-based partners, titled “Making Science Matter: Community-University Engagement for a Healthier Society.” These workshops will bring community leaders, experts and scientists together in a two-way learning experience where the community learns about the relevant translational science from our SRP, and we learn from the communities their regional needs, priorities and concerns to help develop future research directions as well as explore the solutions to environmental health issues dealing with Superfund toxicant exposures. Two areas of concern identified by our community partners include the contamination taking place as a result of uncontrolled hazardous waste disposal, and soil contamination in areas where people are growing their own food;

(3) Co-create with our community partners individual and team-based opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to design and carry out community-based service learning projects, and

(4) Building on the success of the Los Laureles Canyon documentary we will co-author a series of bilingual (Spanish-English) reports, guides and science communication videos with our community partners that can serve as community empowerment tools. Our progress will be systematically evaluated using a logic model on an annual basis with input from our external advisory committee. We will share our progress and lessons learned with border communities, the U.S.EPA, ATSDR, PEPH, and the NIEHS Community Engagement network. 

For updates see News: http://superfund.ucsd.edu/news

Link to the GNEB page: http://superfund.ucsd.edu/index.php/gneb/

Powerpoint file for the  EAC meeting on Dec. 9 2013 (RTC-CEC_Pezzoli-EAC2013.pptx)

Publications

Al-Delaimy, W. K., Larsen, C. W., Pezzoli, K. (2014) Differences in health symptoms among residents living near illegal dump sites in Los Laureles Canyon, Tijuana, Mexico: a cross sectional survey. In.t J. Environ. Res. Public Health. 11(9), 9532-52.

PubMedID: 25226411
PubMed Central ID: 

Pezzoli, K., Tukey, R., Sarabia, H., Zaslavsky, I., Miranda, M. L., Suk, W. A., Lin, A., Ellisman, M. (2007) The NIEHS Environmental Health Sciences Data Resource Portal: placing advanced technologies in service to vulnerable communities. Environ Health Perspect. 115(4), 564-71. doi: 10.1289/ehp.9817

PubMedID: 17450225

Main Contact Information

Core Leader

  • Dr. Keith Pezzoli

Core Co-Leaders

  • Dr. Wael Al-Delaimy

Superfund Related Project Members

  • Zack Osborn SRA

Other UCSD Superfund Projects:

Research Translation Core

Resources

UCSD Global Health Initiative

The Global Action Research Center

UCSD Food Justice

Dr. Wael Al-Delaimy, MD, Ph.D.

References From PubMed (NCBI) - Pezzoli

References From PubMed (NCBI) - Al-Delaimy

Keith Pezzoli, Ph.D., Core Leader
Director Urban Studies and Planning Program
Professor, Communications Department
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive, Mail code 0503
La Jolla, CA 92093-0503
P: 858-534-3691 F: 858-534-1691
E- Mail: kpezzoli@ucsd.edu

Wael Al-Delaimy, MD, Ph.D., Co-Core Leader
Professor & Chief, Division of Global Health Family & Preventive
Medicine Cancer Prevention & Control Program
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive, Mail code 0628
P: 858-822-6515
E-Mail: waldelaimy@ucsd.edu

Contact

UCSD Superfund Research Center
University of California, San Diego
Pharmacology Department
9500 Gilman Drive, Mail Code 0722
La Jolla, CA 92093-0722