Research Capacity Building Core

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CHART Research Capacity Building Core Team

Linelle Blais

Research Associate Professor of Behavioral, Social, and Health Education Sciences

Linelle Blais, PhD, is a research associate professor in the Department of Behavioral, Social, and Health Education Sciences at Rollins. She has demonstrated success in developing and leading capacity building initiatives and strategies through tailored learning and professional development opportunities for diverse types of health professionals, organizations, and communities within a state, regionally (in the South), and nationwide. Blais brings her expertise to the CHART by serving as core lead of the Research Capacity Building Core.

Tom Clasen

Professor of Environmental Health

Tom Clasen, PhD, is a professor in the Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health at Rollins. He is an environmental epidemiologist with extensive experience leading large randomized controlled trials of household- and community-based environmental health interventions to address climate-related risks in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Clasen will support CHART by serving as lead of the pilot research program.

Sophia Lamb

Training Specialist

Sophia Lamb is a training specialist for the Emory Centers for Public Health Training and Technical Assistance, as well as the Region IV Public Health Training Center. Within CHART, she helps develop heat and health- related webinars for clinical professionals and supports the pilot research program.

Amy Lovvorn

Program Coordinator

Amy Lovvorn works with research projects in the Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health at Rollins and the School of Nursing. Her primary experience includes managing international randomized controlled trials involving women’s reproductive health as well as household- and community-based interventions to address environmental health risks. Amy coordinates selected activities with the pilot grant awardees.

Lillian Madrigal

Director of Implementation Science and Practice, Emory Centers

Lillian Madrigal, PhD, is the director of implementation science and practice at the Emory Centers for Public Health Training and Technical Assistance and an assistant research professor of behavioral, social, and health education sciences. Her work focuses on the implementation and evaluation of evidence-based interventions to promote health behaviors and outcomes, and professional development and scaling of the public health workforce. Madrigal brings subject matter expertise on implementation research, project leadership, curriculum development, capacity building training and technical assistance, and communities of practice.

Rebecca Philipsborn

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics

Rebecca Philipsborn, MD, is an assistant professor of pediatrics in the School of Medicine. Her work focuses on the collective understanding and consideration of the environmental-child-health interface in clinical care, teaching, and research to support children’s health today and tomorrow.

About

The Research Capacity Building Core (RCBC) aims to build the capacity of climate change and health (CCH) researchers in Emory, their U.S. and global partners, and physicians serving the communities at-risk in Atlanta through tailored learning, direct research experience, and networking, to translate CCH research discoveries into real-world policies and practice.

The RCBC is crucial to CHART’s vision to be a hub that advances and translates research in the climate risks to protect the health of under-resourced urban populations. The RCBC will implement new and inclusive approaches to enhance the CCH research capacity of transdisciplinary teams from epidemiology, exposure science, medicine, biostatistics, social and behavioral science, and public policy, as well as community partners. This will lead to more expansive approaches to identify and address gaps in our understanding of the differential susceptibilities to heat exposure in under- resourced urban communities, with a focus on interventions that are most impactful and feasible.

To achieve our goals, the RCBC proposes three specific aims:

Aims

Build CHART researchers’ capacity to implement and adapt transdisciplinary CCH research within their specific system and community context through tailored skills-building and learning opportunities.

Establish a pilot project program for investigators at any career stage with promising climate and health research proposals to generate data needed to demonstrate technical feasibility.

Leverage a community of practice to encourage new transdisciplinary research partnerships, new CCH research projects, and translation of evidence to action.