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Partnerships for Environmental Public Health (PEPH)

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The Evolution of the Community Engagement Core

March 06, 2025

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Interviewee: Kathleen Gray, Ph.D.

In this episode, Kathleen Gray, Ph.D., reflects on decades of experience working with communities to address environmental health issues. She discusses the evolution of the Community Engagement Cores, their role in advancing community engagement in research, and best practices for working with communities.

The Evolution of the Community Engagement Core

Including community members as partners in research has many benefits. It allows scientists to better understand and address community concerns while building residents’ knowledge and capacity to create healthy environments and improve their health.

One way NIEHS supports community engagement is through Community Engagement Cores (CECs), which are a component of many NIEHS-funded center programs. CECs foster community-university partnerships and make findings from environmental health research accessible to community residents, decision makers, educators, and public health practitioners.

For nearly 30 years, the CECs have been included in the NIEHS Environmental Health Sciences (EHS) Core Center Program. In recognition of this milestone, our guest, Kathleen Gray, Ph.D., reflects on decades of experience working with communities to address environmental health issues. She discusses the evolution of the CECs, their role in advancing community engagement in research, and best practices for working with communities. Gray directs the CEC at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill EHS Core Center.

Guest

Kathleen Gray

Kathleen Gray, Ph.D., leads the Center for Public Engagement with Science, a hub for community engagement and informal science education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also directs the Community Engagement Cores within the NIEHS-funded Environmental Health Sciences Core Center and Superfund Research Program Center at UNC.

Gray works with partners across North Carolina to increase understanding of environmental health hazards in communities and implement strategies to reduce and remove these hazards. Her recent community engagement efforts focus on well water contamination and health, environmental health literacy, and report-back of research results.

Gray’s community-engaged research has been recognized by the UNC Office of the Provost with the Engaged Scholarship Award for Partnership, which highlights exemplary engaged scholarship in service to the state of North Carolina through demonstrated excellence, responsiveness to community concerns, and strong community partnerships.

Resources

References

  • Penning TM, Breysse PN, Gray K, Howarth M, Yan B. 2014. Environmental health research recommendations from the Inter-Environmental Health Sciences Core Center Working Group on unconventional natural gas drilling operations. Environ Health Perspect 122(11):1155-9. [Abstract]