Multi-strategy approach to enhancing awareness and preparation for environmental health in times of emergency response and homeland security

Early retirement initiatives and declining public dollars have created an environmental health workforce suffering from significant brain drain and institutional memory. In order to protect the health of the people of Illinois, UIS in partnership with the Illinois Environmental Health Association recognized the need to open up communication channels between public health administrators, train environmental health practitioners, and to educate the public, legislators, and students about environmental health. UIS organized and presented an open forum for the public and conference for practitioners, “Crisis in Environmental Health,” bringing to campus nationally-recognized professionals, researchers, and the media in order to provide for public dialog and training of new environmental health practitioners. The public forums and conference improved dialog among Illinois public health administrators and practitioners, regulated community, and the general public in order to identify strategies for improving the ability and efficiency to deliver environmental health services through a trained workforce and effective environmental health law, policy, and scholarship. Conference sessions and public lecture forums were video and used as the foundation by which an online upper-division general education course was designed to build student awareness of environmental health issues and the roll of environmental health practitioners in protecting public health. The online general education course increased student awareness and preparation on environmental health issues and provided students with a multidisciplinary approach to addressing the public crisis in environmental health. The online course was taught collaborative by UIS professors and adjuncts who are environmental health professionals in state government.