Announcement: New $1 Million NIH Grant Creates Environmental Health Research Institute for Nurse and Clinician Scientists

Castner Incorporated with consortia partners Emory University, Washington State University, and University of Alabama in Huntsville have received a $1 Million National Institute of Health’s National Institute Environmental Health Sciences grant to provide environmental health research training. 

The 5-year grant covers a train-the-trainer program called EHRI-NCS, which stands for Environmental Health Research Institute for Nurse and Clinician Scientists. Emory University Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing Assistant Professor, Jeannie Rodriquez (PI) and Associate Professor, Lisa Thompson (CO-I) are a part of the 144 faculty, scientists, and educators in the program who will shape the next generation of environmental health nurse scientists. 

The EHRI-NCS program will enroll a new cohort every year. The program includes self-paced online courses, a 1-week intensive workshop, and mentorship support. The location for the intensive workshop will rotate over the years among online-only; Atlanta, Georgia; Niagara Falls, New York; and Spokane, Washington. Enrollment applications for the first cohort are being accepted until January 31, 2022. The program is recruiting clinician scientist participants who have completed at least 6 academic credits of graduate research and who educate, train, & mentor registered nurses in research trajectories. 

“We are really excited to offer participants the opportunity to interact with cutting edge scientific leaders and laboratories through the EHRI-NCS. We’re providing the information in a way that participants have a ready-made and user-friendly instructor toolkit to start teaching this material in their own institutions right away.” relays Dr. Jeannie Rodriguez.

“We have extensive ongoing collaboration and mentorship networks for our participants to join. We are committed to supporting their long-term success well after the workshop with invitations to full integration with a community of environmental health scientists” says Dr. Luz Huntington-Moskos, Director of the Community Engagement Core Center for Integrative Environmental Health Sciences Community Engagement Core at the University of Louisville.

“The EHRI-NCS grew out of successful projects and collaborations in the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environment’s Research Workgroup. One of the biggest strengths of this work has been our ability to bring innovations and scientific information to nursing leaders around the country in the full range of rural, urban, suburban, and other settings in ways that are deeply relevant to their policy, research, education, and practice” says Dr. Katie Huffling, Executive Director of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments.

“The EHRI-NCS is completely participant-centered by using a flipped classroom approach.” explains Jessica Castner, President of Castner Incorporated. “This means everyone has online access to the course basics to finish at their own pace. Then, the program focuses entirely on supporting the participant’s goal--whether that’s designing a new center, a new course, a new academic program, and a new research project, a new policy, or adding a new environmental health variable to their work. Picture it as if each participant is given the keys to open whatever door they want, and the program is designed to offer a great deal of depth and expertise to support whatever the new learning choices the participant decides to invest their time and energy into.” 

Dr. Jeannie Rodriguez is an Assistant Professor, clinical track, and pediatric nurse practitioner. Dr. Rodriquez is also the Assistant Director of the Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Primary Care Program. She graduated from Georgia Baptist College of Nursing in 1996 with her BSN and worked as a staff nurse in a specialty unit focused on caring for the ventilated child at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta before obtaining her MSN from Emory University in 2000. She has worked as a PNP in pediatric primary care. She obtained her PhD in 2015 from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Dr. Lisa Thompson is an Associate Professor, tenured, in the School of Nursing at Emory University and affiliated faculty in the Department of Environmental Health in the Rollins School of Public Health. She is the Director of Graduate Studies for the PhD program in nursing. She is a member of the Network for Evaluation and Implementation Sciences at Emory University (NEISE). She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nurses. Dr. Thompson’s research focuses on environmental health disparities that contribute to adverse perinatal outcomes, specifically low birth weight, preterm birth, child stunting and cognitive development. Her contribution to nursing research is in global environmental health, specifically developing and evaluating interventions to reduce exposures to air pollution in low-resource countries. 

For more information on Dr. Jeannie Rodriguez, visit their faculty profile. For more information on Dr. Lisa Thompson, visit their faculty profile. To learn more about the Environmental Health Research Institute for Nurse and Clinician Scientists, visit the Castner Incorporated website

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