Welcome to the ANHE Research Work Group!
The focus of the Research Workgroup is to frame and support an agenda for enabling nurses to solve environmental challenges to health through the creation of new knowledge. As a recognized nurse researcher focused on environmental health, we would be delighted if you would consider joining the Research Work Group. The Research Work Group provides excellent resources, support, and mentorship for all researcher experience levels – from novice to expert. To view the Research Work Group’s Priorities, click here.
The ANHE Research Work Group benefits from close partners working in advocacy, practice, and education. Critical research questions arise from these relationships and the resulting research agenda reflects the most current and pressing challenges of our profession.
The Research Work Group’s monthly call is held on the 4th Thursday of the month from 3-4 pm ET. Sign up for our work group listserv so you can stay up to date with our activities and receive reminders for our monthly call: Sign up!
This month (October 2021), we will hear from Aubrey Doede, PhD RN. Aubrey is a Postdoctoral Fellow, Cardiovascular Epidemiology in the Department of Family Medicine & Public Health at UC San Diego School of Medicine.
Title: Effects of drought and airborne dust on childhood asthma in Imperial County, CA
The Imperial Valley region of Southeastern California is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the state and has the highest rates of childhood asthma in California. The lack of precipitation in the Imperial Valley has caused the water level of the Salton Sea to recede to a record low in the modern era. The diminishing water level in an already-arid climate pose a risk of exposing previously-sequestered toxic chemicals to open air, which can adversely affect lung health. Future droughts and heatwaves are expected to rise in frequency and severity, disproportionately affecting those impacted by financial and health disparities. The current research uses meteorological techniques to determine the extent to which airborne dust from the Salton Sea is responsible for the increased rate of pediatric emergency department visits due to asthma complications.
Join us on Zoom
For more information about the ANHE Research Work Group, please contact Katie Huffling (katie@envirn.org, 240-753-3729).
Check out our Webinar Series on YouTube!
Featured Webinar: Exploring greenspace, leisure time physical activity and mental health in the southeastern US by Gibran Mancus, PhD, MSN-Ed, RN
The Work Group is currently co-chaired by Dr. Lisa M. Thompson and Dr. Liz Mizelle
Lisa M. Thompson, PhD, RN, FNP, FAAN is an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing at Emory University and affiliated faculty in the Department of Environmental Health in the Rollins School of Public Health. She is the Director of Graduate Studies for the PhD program in nursing. She is a member of the Network for Evaluation and Implementation Sciences at Emory University (NEISE). She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nurses. Dr. Thompson’s research focuses on environmental health disparities that contribute to adverse perinatal outcomes, specifically low birth weight, preterm birth, child stunting and cognitive development. Her contribution to nursing research is in global environmental health, specifically developing and evaluating interventions to reduce exposures to household air pollution from cooking fires in low-resource countries.
Elizabeth (Liz) Mizelle, PhD, RN-BC, CNE is an Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina (NC). She graduated with a PhD in 2021 and her dissertation research was a community-informed mixed methods study on environmental heat stress, fluid intake and hydration status among eastern NC farmworkers. Liz is building a research program focused on the negative health effects of extreme weather on coastal, rural, and agricultural communities. She is an AgriSafe Nurse Scholar and a Daisy Faculty Award recipient.