PROTECT is proud to announce that Dr. Phil Brown, sociologist and environmental justice advocate and PROTECT Community Engagement and Research Translation Core leader, will be the 2015 recipient of the American Sociological Association’s Environment and Technology Section’s Practice and Outreach Award. Over the past 25 years, Dr. Brown has worked with community groups, environmental justice advocates, non-governmental and governmental organizations, graduate students, and academics from a variety of disciplines to document and draw attention to “contested illnesses” from environmental pollutants. His work has led to policy changes, the passage of legislation, and the empowerment of local communities affected by industrial pollution.
Within PROTECT, Dr. Brown and Dr. Carmen Milagros Vélez Vega (Community Engagement Core Co-leader) have fostered creative and productive collaborations with local community stakeholders in Puerto Rico. Dr. Brown is one of the original pioneers of report-back, a process through which personal results of environmental health studies are reported back to study participants in an effort to empower individuals and communities and to improve lay-professional interaction, all in order to reduce exposures and improve health. Dr. Brown and Dr. Vélez Vega are currently implementing report-back for PROTECT participants.
Congratulations, Phil!