CEHHS faculty and students help improve life for children in Southwest Detroit

DETROIT, MI. - On Saturday May 13th, 2017 UM-Dearborn's Associate Professor Dr. Christopher Burke and students from his EXPS 220 and EDD 485 classes participated in the Building a Brighter Neinas community park project sponsored by ACCESS (Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services), as part of the Arab American Day of Service and hosted by Neinas Dual Language Learning Academy in Detroit. 

The event brought together over 450 volunteers who helped to clean up the school grounds, sort donations for the schools clothing closet, plant flowers, spread mulch and begin the installation of the Alayna Elabed Brighter Neinas Community Park designed by the students at Neinas Elementary School in collaboration with pre-service teachers from the UM-Dearborn's College of Education, Health, and Human Services (CEHHS).

Students working at the Neinas Dual Language Learning Academy's
acquired lot for the park.

The installation of the Alayna Elabed Brighter Neinas Park is one success in a five year collaboration between students and teachers at this Detroit Public School and pre-service teachers at UM-Dearborn. For the past 18 months, Dr. Burke's students have been collaborating with students from Mrs. Amy Lazarowicz’s 4th and 5th grade science classes to study, design and plan the park based on data collected from a community survey to identify goals for the park. When the classes came to a consensus about their final design they built full scale tables and recycling containers which were installed in the park during this event.

Neinas' students and UM-Dearborn's teachers designed and tested scale models
of the picnic tables and recycling bins for the park out of craft sticks and glue

On May 16, Dr. Burke shared this experience with the Michigan Department of Education "Top 10 in 10 Innovation Roadshow" as an example of an innovative promising practice, and on May 18th CEHHS' students Jenine Conners and Rachel Marple joined Dr. Burke, Mrs. Lazarowicz and three students from Neinas to talk about the place based collaboration at the South East Michigan Stewardship Coalition's Community Forum at Eastern Michigan University.

Students built 3D models and received feedback from Ryan Marshall, an architect
from FX Architecture, to develop a formal plan based on their models

Gay Johnson, CEHHS Winter 2017 Chancellor's Medallion Recipient

Gay Johnson

Gay Johnson, a College of Education, Health, and Human Services student, was one of the five new graduates who were recognized as Chancellor's Medallion recipients during the UM-Dearborn's commencement ceremony on April 30, 2017. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in healthy policy studies and a minor in women's and gender studies. She graduated with High Distinction.

Gay transferred to UM-Dearborn as part of the Honors Transfer Innovators program, and during her education years at CEHHS, she was on the Dean's List as a part-time student for Fall 2013/Winter 2014 and Fall 2014/Winter 2015 and was named a 2014 UM-Dearborn Difference Maker.

"I wanted to inspire others to reach their goals and fulfill their dreams as I aimed to do regardless of my age. My desire to pursue an education was something I desired to achieve", said Gay.

She chose Health Policy studies as her major because her father experienced many health challenges and "I wanted to know what policies were in place so he could receive the best possible care", she said. "I chose UM-Dearborn, because I would receive a quality education while enhancing my employment opportunities."

Gay was a very active student leader. She was the chair of Women in Learning and Leadership (WILL), vice president of communications for the campus chapter of the American Association of University Women (AAUW), and served as a site leader for the annual MLK Day of Service. She is also a member of the National Society of Leadership and Success, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, and was inducted into the Alpha Sigma Lambda Honor Society.

Now she plans to use her acquired skills to advance her career at Delta Airlines and in the future, Gay also plans to open a long-term shelter for homeless people. "Homelessness is a huge issue which needs to be addressed more often", she concluded.

Winter 2017 UM-Dearborn Chancellor's Medallion Recipients and
Student speaker (from left): Brandon Lee (CECS), Jamie Jeffries (CASL),
Kevin Landwehr (COB), Gay Johnson (CEHHS), Victor Jimenez (Student
Speaker-CASL) and Nic Jones (CASL)

U-M Graham Institute awards CEHHS Assistant Professor grant for Health environmental justice project

Natalie Sampson, PhD

ANN ARBOR, MI - With a team of national partners, UM-Dearborn CEHHS Assistant Professor, Dr. Natalie Sampson, and CASL Assistant Professor, Dr. Carmel Price, were awarded with an eight-month Catalyst Grant from the U-M Graham Institute to fund their sustainability-related project "Climate changes health: ensuring environmental justice underlies public health's climate change work"

Dr. Sampson is the principal investigator of this interdisciplinary project that also includes experts from other universities and colleges, tribal agencies and non-governmental organizations.

This project will convene a summit preceding the 2017 American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting and draft a subsequent white paper. The event will bring together environmental justice leaders and professionals from multiple disciplines, academic institutions, and professional organizations. The approach is designed so that public health leaders can learn from leaders in frontline communities to better address climate-related health disparities in collaboration. The project also aims to increase the participation of historically underrepresented students.

“I have confidence that this will be a productive process. The team doing this work includes many new and longtime nationally renowned environmental justice activists and scholars. We hope to synthesize takeaways and resources, as well as compel new community and academic partnerships.”, said Dr. Sampson

For the Catalyst Grants, six proposals were submitted, involving 18 faculty members/researchers from eight units.

"We're very pleased to have received so many high-quality proposals from talented faculty across campus. Important sustainability work is taking place throughout the university, and we're happy to support it," said Drew Horning, the Graham Institute's interim director.

More about this project at http://graham.umich.edu/activity/40659

Dr. Sampson is an Assistant Professor at UM-Dearborn's College of
Education Health and Human Services