University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
NIEHS Center of Excellence at the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute
Community Outreach and Education Program
Audrey R. Gotsch, DrPH, CHES, Director
The Community Outreach and Education Program (COEP) at the Center for Environmental Health Sciences, an NIEHS Center of Excellence at the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, builds upon the broad experience and research of the center investigators. The focus of COEP is to improve the environmental health literacy of youth and educators through the development and implementation of comprehensive school-based programs based on current scientific research; assist communities in identifying and addressing environmental health issues of concern to its residents through community outreach; and to provide short training courses that assist health care professionals and workers in upgrading their environmental health competencies. School-based programming includes K-12th grade curricular materials and collaborative teacher professional development. The COEP’s K-12th grade curricular materials have been shared with classrooms in 23 states, Puerto Rico and Guam. Inquiry-based materials, designed to foster students’ critical thinking, problem solving and decision making skills, focus on such topics as toxicology and risk assessment. Community outreach encompasses forums, websites and literature. Professional/worker education focuses on enhancing competencies in select areas, through hands-on instruction on environmental health issues.

Barry Schlegel, EdD, CIH
Barry Schlegel is an Assistant Professor in the Health Education and Behavioral Science Division, UMDNJ-SPH, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and a member of the Public Education and Risk Communication Division at EOHSI. Barry has an MAT in Science Teaching from Fairleigh Dickinson University, an MS in Industrial Hygiene from the University of Pittsburgh and an EdD in Adult and Continuing Education from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. He is a Certified Industrial Hygienist and a licensed teacher who taught 9th-12th grade earth science, chemistry, physics and biology for six years. Since 1989, he has worked at UMDNJ to direct and implement numerous educational projects, and has been the Principal Investigator on 11 grants involving educational development and dissemination projects totaling more than 1.2 million dollars.

Laura Hemminger, MPH, CHES
Laura Hemminger is the Director of the Resource Center and Co-Director of COEP. Laura received her MPH degree from UMDNJ and is currently enrolled in the doctoral program at UMDNJ-SPH where she is pursuing a DrPH in Health Education and Behavioral Sciences with an emphasis in K-12 education and evaluation. She has been involved in all aspects of educational and outreach programming for the Resource Center since 1994. Laura directs, plans, organizes, develops, adapts and evaluates curricular materials and teacher professional development programs. She has personally conducted more than 90 trainings for teachers and teacher trainers across the country, as well as within Puerto Rico and Guam.

To learn more about the EOHSI and its COEP visit http://www.eohsi.rutgers.edu/niehs/niehs.html.