Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia UniversityColumbia UniversityMailman School of Public Health


Community Outreach and Education Core









David Evans, Ph.D., Director COEC
Peggy M. Shepard, WEACT co-Director COEC
Anhthu Hoang, Ph.D., J.D., WEACT, Health Policy Advisor
Leon Tulton, M.P.H., WEACT, Communications Director
Marian Feinberg, For A Better Bronx (FABB), Advisory Board
Ogonnaya Dotson-Newman, Environmental Health and Community-Based Research Coordinator

The Center for Environmental Health in Northern Manhattan (CEHNM), West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc. (WE ACT), For A Better Bronx (FABB) and other community partners and stakeholders collaborate to provide community outreach and education to realize the goals of the Community Outreach and Education Core (COEC). These goals are to develop partnerships with stakeholders, to translate and disseminate CEHNM science, to work with community organizations and other partners to enhance dialogue on environmental health issues, to develop and implement outreach and education programs to increase awareness and understanding of research being conducted at the CEHNM and to evaluate outreach models, disseminate results at local and national levels and promote models for national implementation.

We accomplish these goals through:

  • Public testimony at local and state government hearings
  • Briefings and roundtables for policymakers
  • Community forums and conferences
  • Communicating environmental health research findings to coalitions of community organizations to support their efforts to improve the health-related safety of housing in New York City
  • Education for health professionals in practice and training
  • CEHNM newsletters
  • An Annual Environmental Health and Justice Leadership Training Program
  • Expanding our partnership with the Lang Youth Medical Program at New York Presbyterian Hospital at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC).

The four communities in Northern Manhattan served by the CEHNM are Central Harlem, West Harlem, Washington Heights and Inwood. These communities are largely disadvantaged, medically underserved and predominantly composed of people of color. Based on data from the 2000 census, 35% of the residents of Central Harlem and 31% in Washington Heights/Inwood are living in poverty. Central Harlem is 77% African-American, non-Latino, although the proportion of the population that is Latino grew from 10% in 1990 to 17% in 2000. In West Harlem, African-Americans account for 31% of the population, while Latinos now account for 43%, up from 36% in 1990. Finally, in Washington Heights, fully 74% are Latino, largely from the Dominican Republic. Although we have formed partnerships with and seek to collaborate with other communities as well (notably East Harlem and the South Bronx), these three communities are situated in close proximity to Columbia University, the Harlem Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, the Harlem Hospital Center and the CUMC and constitute our natural catchment area.

Perhaps more than most other disadvantaged urban populations, Northern Manhattan's residents are exposed to an inappropriate share of environmental hazards, ranging from those within the home (e.g., lead, pesticides, asbestos, nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide) to a myriad of occupational and neighborhood based exposures, including the North River Sewage Treatment Facility in West Harlem and seven diesel bus depots. These factors contribute to high disease rates, including prevalence levels of asthma that are among the highest in the country. Data from the New York City Health Survey completed in 2004 show that asthma hospitalizations in both Central Harlem and Washington Heights/Inwood are higher than in the rest of Manhattan, and that cancer death rates in Central Harlem are 30% higher than in the rest of Manhattan and 40% higher than in New York City as a whole.

The work of many CEHNM researchers has focused on measuring these exposures and documenting their association with cancer, respiratory diseases and neurodegenerative disorders. The residents, community organizations, service and governmental agencies of our community are concerned about these exposures and their health outcomes as well, but lack adequate information to take effective action to protect their health. To address this, the work of the COEC has focused on establishing partnerships with the community to identify community concerns about environmental health, providing information about CEHNM findings that can address these concerns and engaging the community and other stakeholders in dialogues to increase their capacity to understand these issues and make sound personal and policy decisions about environmental health.