NIEHS PEPH Newsletter Highlights Community Engagement Core Leader Carmen Vélez-Vega
PROTECT Community Engagement Core (CEC) leader Carmen Vélez-Vega is featured as the Grantee Highlight in April’s NIEHS Partnership for Environmental Public Health (PEPH) Newsletter. PEPH is a network organized by the NIEHS and made up of scientists, community members, public health officials, and healthcare providers who work to increase the visibility of environmental public health research.
Vélez-Vega is the CEC leader for both PROTECT and the Center for Research on Early Childhood Exposure and Development in Puerto Rico (CRECE). Her work in both centers is dedicated to educating and engaging the community on environmental health, specifically the effects of environmental exposures on maternal and child health. She also plays a big part in the report-back process of PROTECT, which provides PROTECT study participants their results to further inform them of their own environmental health.
Vélez-Vega brings her background in social work and social policy analysis to her work with PROTECT and CRECE. Her approach to addressing environmental health concerns helps her build trust and relationships with study participants and other community members. This trust paves the way for work that increases community awareness of environmental health and contaminants.
Outside of her work as CEC leader for PROTECT and CRECE, Vélez-Vega is a part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Children Health Protection Advisory Committee. She also works with health care professionals to provide environmental health training and children’s health advising.
Congratulations, Carmen, on this exciting highlight, and thank you for all that you do!