Academics
We study the impact of our surroundings, both natural and built, on health.
The field of environmental and occupational health covers everything from the air we breathe and the water we drink to the injuries and mental health challenges we may face at work. We strive to improve health by promoting practices and policies that reduce harmful exposures and protect vulnerable populations. From improving worker health and safety, to promoting healthy housing, to creating new tools to monitor air and water quality, we work to make our homes, our workplaces, and our communities healthier places for all.
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A graduate degree in environmental & occupational health prepares you to think critically about complex challenges and to design solutions that improve public health. When you leave one of our programs, you’ll be ready to address emerging environmental and workplace issues in a way that builds on science while prioritizing real people. Our graduates work in environmental health and safety, emergency management, environmental epidemiology, and workplace safety and health in private, nonprofit, and government organizations.
Our Mountain & Plains Education and Research Center (MAP ERC) and the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health (EOH) at the Colorado School of Public Health recently hosted its 14th Annual Research Day Symposium. The event brought together students from the EOH Department, trainees from the MAP ERC, and local professionals and academics to celebrate transdisciplinary student research in environmental and occupational health.
This year's event explored solving the vexing problems that face the current and future global workforce.
"As educators and scientists, we are classically trained to address workplace challenges. We use approaches which falsely assume that we can control enough factors in the workplace to prevent all injuries and improve overall health. But there are factors outside of our control that can undermine our efforts to promote safe work," said Lee Newman, MD, MA, center director. "How do we begin to solve these vexing problems? Together."
Each presentation - platform, keynote, and poster - from Research Day explored one facet of the overall vexing problems facing workforce health, safety and well-being. Keynote speaker Rebecca Guerin, PhD, CHES, chief of Social Science and Translation Research Branch, Division of Science Integration at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), brought the perspective and scientific models that NIOSH is using to look at all aspects of the workplace. Trainee platform presentations spanned the topics of workplace aggression, harmful chemicals in museum curation, to hospitalist workload and burnout. Poster presentations represented fascinating topics from each of the MAP ERC's six training programs. Since 2007, the MAP ERC has been funding students and providing expert training to build future leaders that will attempt to solve these complex problems with a transdisciplinary approach.
So what are we taking away from Research Day 2023? Hope. Hope in the future leaders of occupational safety and health who are ready for challenge ahead and are training to face it.
Join us in celebrating our poster and platform presentation winners below. Thank you to our award sponsors: American Industrial Hygiene Association, Central Rocky Mountain Health Physics Society, Society for Occupational Health Psychology, American Society of Safety Professionals - Colorado Chapter, Rocky Mountain Academy of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, EOH Department, The Wireline Group.