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2008 Progress Report: Southern Center on Environmentally-Driven Disparities in Birth Outcomes
EPA Grant Number: R833293Center: Southern Center on Environmentally Driven Disparities in Birth Outcomes
Center Director: Miranda , Marie Lynn
Title: Southern Center on Environmentally-Driven Disparities in Birth Outcomes
Investigators: Miranda , Marie Lynn , Ashley-Koch, Allison , Auten, Richard , Foster, W. Michael , Gelfand, Alan , Gibson-Davis, Christina , Goodall, Jonathan , James, Sherman , Reiter, Jerome , Speer, Marcy , Swamy, Geeta , Tootoo, Joshua , Williams, Redford
Institution: Duke University
EPA Project Officer: Fields, Nigel
Project Period: May 15, 2007 through September 30, 2011
Project Period Covered by this Report: May 15, 2007 through September 30, 2008
Project Amount: $7,735,620
RFA: Centers for Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research (2005)
Research Category: Children's Health , Health Effects
Description:
Objective:The Southern Center on Environmentally-Driven Disparities in Birth Outcomes (SCEDDBO) is governed through an Administrative Core that includes an Executive Committee composed of the Director, the two Co-Directors, and the Project Manager; an Internal Steering Committee composed of members of the Executive Committee and the Directors of the Research Projects and the Facility and Community Outreach Cores, as well as a community member and the Director of the Durham County Health Department; and an External Advisory Committee composed of senior environmental health scientists, as well as community representatives, with expertise relevant to SCEDDBO, who provide informal consultation, as well as annual formal evaluation of Center research and outreach activities.
The specific aims of the Administrative Core are to:
- Provide scientific direction and leadership;
- Coordinate and foster interactions among research project and facility core investigators;
- Provide administrative services for the Center;
- Direct the Young Investigators program; and
- Represent Duke’s SCEDDBO to the university, the community, the NIH, other Children’s Environmental Health Centers across the United States, and the policy and scientific community interested in children's environmental health more broadly.
In all activities, SCEDDBO emphasizes the importance of diversity. The decision to focus on health disparities, the gender and racial diversity of Center leadership, the incorporation of natural, social and biomedical scientists, a commitment to community-based participatory research, and efforts to promote the careers of promising new investigators are all indicative of the importance that we place on fostering environments where all people can prosper.
Progress Summary:Announcement
The Administrative Core (AC) served as the host for Administrator Johnson when he traveled to Durham to announce the SCEDDBO award. AC personnel worked with Nicholas School and Duke University Offices of Communication and Government Relations to ensure that all substantive and organizational requests from the Administrator’s office were fulfilled. A research roundtable allowed SCEDDBO investigators to brief the Administrator on scientific goals and objectives, as well as potential policy applications. The Administrator in turn provided helpful comments on the direction of the center. In addition, a formal event was held on campus, where Administrator Johnson, Stanley Meiburg (EPA), Richard Brodhead (President, Duke University), and Marie Lynn Miranda (PI, SCEDDBO) all offered remarks, followed by Q&A from the audience.
Quality Management Plan
The Administrative Core drafted an initial version of the Quality Management Plan (QMP) that was then distributed to all investigators and staff for critique and comment. Based on this input, the QMP was revised and submitted to the USEPA for approval. Once final approval was received, copies of the QMP were distributed to all persons working on any of the SCEDDBO projects. These individuals then signed the cover sheet thereby agreeing to abide by the policies laid out in the QMP. The Administrative Core keeps a copy of these signed forms in its files.
Leadership Changes
The SCEDDBO research group suffered a tremendous loss when our center co-director, Marcy Speer, died of cancer in August 2007. Richard Auten agreed to take on the role of center co-director. In addition, Jonathan Goodall moved from Duke to the University of South Carolina (USC). We requested that SCEDDBO be allowed to establish a sub-contract with USC, so that Goodall’s work on water quality layers could continue uninterrupted. We also requested that Martha Keating be appointed director of the Community Outreach and Translation Core. All three of these requested changes were approved by the EPA.
Young Investigators Program
In the original plans for SCEDDBO, Marcy Speer was to have mentored both of our Young Investigators. Under our new organizational structure, Rick Auten is mentoring Geeta Swamy, and Sherman James (SCEDDBO’s other center co-director) is mentoring Christina Gibson-Davis.
Year one expenditures
Year one expenditures matched projections in most areas. Spending on travel was higher than anticipated, largely due to rapidly escalating fuel and other travel costs. Salary spending was lower than anticipated due to the unexpected loss of our center co-director, Marcy Speer. Personnel decisions to re-delegate her effort and responsibilities were postponed for a time and those salary dollars went unspent. In addition, other technical and laboratory positions that we would otherwise have filled immediately were delayed as we considered how we wanted to reorganize the center.
IRB Certification
A centralized database on IRB and IUCUAC certification and continuing education requirements is maintained through the AC. Twice a year, Dr. Pamela Maxson, the QA Manager, verifies that all researchers associated with SCEDDBO have completed their basic certification and continuing education (one credit of continuing education is required each year to maintain certification) requirements. Reminders are sent to investigators when they are due for additional training. In addition, Dr. Maxson is responsible for ensuring IRB and IUCAUC Protocols are renewed and updated as necessary. All of these documents are posted to the SCEDDBO internal website, and paper copies are centrally maintained by Dr. Maxson.
IRB Audit
Project B: Healthy Pregnancy, Healthy Baby: Studying Racial Disparities in Birth Outcomes was randomly selected by the Duke School of Medicine Compliance Office, Clinical Trials Quality Assurance Group for internal audit. This process took place from December 2007 through January 2008. The final report was received on January 30, 2008. The AC coordinated the interaction with the auditors. The overall assessment was extremely positive, and Project B staff received additional relevant feedback during the audit process.
Meetings
The Executive Committee meets monthly. We typically schedule these meetings in advance of the Internal Steering Committee meetings in order to set the agenda for the larger group meetings. In addition, in January 2008, the Administrative Core hosted the first meeting of the Science Advisory Committee (SAC). We provided the SAC with documents outlining the basic goals and objective of each center component – as well as overall SCEDDBO goals. Staff associated with each center component also developed a list of questions on which they especially sought the advice and guidance of the SAC. These questions guided much of our discussion and led to a very productive meeting.
Website
The AC provided material on SCEDDBO to the EPA for uploading to the EPA children’s centers website. In addition, we established a site describing SCEDDBO. This site is linked off the website for the Children’s Environmental Health Initiative (http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/cehi 
). We also established a secure internal website that allows for discussion boards, email communication, and document storage associated with the work of each of the SCEDDBO components.
Conferences
SCEDDBO PI Miranda and Project Manager Maxson, attended the October 2007 children’s center conference in Washington, D.C., hosted by the EPA. Marie Lynn Miranda presented work on the GIS portal that was developed in support of environmental health needs in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Miranda also provided a keynote address on the use of spatial analysis in environmental health research at the EPA-sponsored Sustainability Conference held in Chapel Hill, NC. In addition, in October 2007, Miranda gave the opening plenary address to the International Society for Exposure Assessment. Her talk was entitled “Fostering Environments where All Children Can Prosper.”
Supplement
The AC coordinated the submission of a supplement request to the EPA. If funded, this proposal would allow us to link SHEDS modeling approaches with birth record data that is being used in Research Project A.
Identification of training opportunities
The AC works with all of the other SCEDDBO components to identify key training opportunities for investigators and other research staff. Through this effort, we have developed greater expertise in remotely sensed data, air pollution modeling, centering models of patient care, spatial statistics, and information science.
Progress and Final Reports:
Original Abstract