The Administrative Core (AC) of the Center for Indigenous Environmental Health Research (CIEHR) will serve as the nexus for all CIEHR Research Project and Core activities and interface with the public and government agencies. The AC will provide management, financial oversight, facilitation, coordination, training and evaluation. Organizational components supporting these activities include a Management Team addressing CIEHR business and integration, an Internal Advisory Board (IAB) fostering communication and synergy with other related University of Arizona (UA) and Northern Arizona University (NAU) Centers and Programs, and an External Advisory Board (EAB) assisting in programmatic evaluation and planning. To build sustainable tribal environmental health disparities research capacity, the AC will select and train early stage investigators and American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) community members through involvement of AI/AN students and tribal personnel in CIEHR environmental health research, supported by the Community Engagement Core (CEC) and Exposure Science Core (ESC), in collaboration with the Research Projects and the Pilot Projects Core (PPC). The AC will set overall CIEHR objectives and metrics to evaluate progress towards their completion and provide new insights as to the impact, meaning, and future direction of CIEHR. The AC will also spearhead the development of new collaborative research projects beyond the core funding, building on the CIEHR approach of incorporating exposure assessment, processes to evaluate and strengthen individual and community resilience, and health policy into research that builds AI/AN community capacity. Leveraging and integrating CIEHR projects, cores, tribal and academic partnerships, the AC will identify, develop and distribute innovative practices for sustainable AI/AN environmental health disparities research.
Specific aims of the AC include: 1) Provide CIEHR administration, coordination and oversight; 2) Provide training, evaluation and planning; and 3) Develop innovative practices for sustainable environmental health disparities research. Anticipated AC outcomes include increased AI/AN community capacity for environmental health disparities research and health policy development. Key components will include identifying mechanisms for effectively partnering with tribes to use exposure assessment to address their environmental health concerns, learning how to best engage tribal resilience to mitigate adverse environmental exposures, and providing exemplars of how to use research to support sustainable tribal environmental approaches for improving community health.
American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities suffer from increased cancer (stomach, gallbladder, liver and kidney), respiratory disease, diabetes, and liver disease, among other conditions. Chemical contamination of traditional foods, water, air, and household environments, as well as social determinants of health, contribute to these health disparities and stand out as modifiable factors. The Center for Indigenous Environmental Health Research will partner with AI/AN communities to build capacity to evaluate these exposures, increase environmental health literacy and resilience, and inform program and policy development.
