Workshop on Environmental Justice solutions
Soil Sampling in the Community
Workshops on air monitoring
Day of Neighborly Needs
Photovoice Informational Session
Symposium On Environmental Justice

About Us

The Community Engagement, Environmental Justice, and Health (CEEJH) Laboratory mission is to educate impacted communities about environmental justice and health issues. Through technical assistance and collaboration, communities are empowered to address environmental injustice and environmental health disparities. The CEEJH Laboratory was founded by Dr. Sacoby Wilson in the Fall 2011. We are housed at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health (MIAEH). CEEJH's primary focus is to provide engagement to highly and differentially exposed populations and underserved communities. Our work has included the development of and participation in partnerships with community-based organizations, environmental advocacy groups, health practitioners, and policymakers (federal, state, and local government) to reduce local contamination, improve environmental quality, and enhance community health and sustainability.

CEEJH advances environmental justice by developing community-university partnerships, using the community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach, community-owned and managed research (COMR) principles, and the Collaborative-Problem Solving Model (CPSM) with a focus on equitable planning, healthy zoning, and sustainable community development. Currently, CEEJH has partnerships with community groups in North Carolina and South Carolina and has trained impacted residents and helped to become citizen scientists using the CBPR framework.

CEEJH is building partnerships in Maryland with community-based organizations and environmental advocacy groups on agricultural pollution in the Chesapeake Bay, exposure disparities for fishermen and residents in the Anacostia Watershed, air pollution issues in South Baltimore, and environmental health disparities in DC. In addition, the CEEJH team has provided outreach and education to teachers and students on Chesapeake Bay contamination, related human health issues, and climate change using the STEMH pipeline development model.

CEEJH Goals

The primary goals of CEEJH are to:

Serve as the link between the University of Maryland and community-based organizations, environmental advocacy groups, health professionals, educators and students, and policymakers on identifying environmental agents and environmental health issues in the District of Columbia-Maryland-Virginia region.
Place specific focus on the environmental health issues associated with contamination of the Chesapeake Bay, Anacostia watershed, Eastern Shore (Choptank River) and other regional waterways, such as exposure to PCB, mercury, and arsenic contamination through fish consumption.
Use the community-based participatory research (CBPR) framework, collaborative problem-solving model (CPSM) principles, and partnerships with diverse community-based organizations and stakeholder groups to address human health risks and environmental issues defined by stakeholders particularly members of underserved populations, and to empower these populations through education, outreach and capacity-building
Provide outreach and education to teachers and students on environmental health and environmental justice issues, including Chesapeake Bay contamination, related human health issues, and climate change using the Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Health (STEMH) pipeline development model.
Development or participation in partnerships with federal, state, and local government, and other policymakers to reduce environmental contamination in this region, understand the role that environmental health policies and planning and development has on driving environmental injustice and environmental health disparities, and work with these policymaker to use environmental justice principles to human health, enhance quality of life, and provide economic benefits to disadvantaged and underserved communities and regions.