Collaboration highlighted as theme during CLEAR's 2nd Annual Symposium

CLEAR hosted our second annual symposium on Thursday, May 16. The theme of the conference was "CLEAR Collaborations: Expanding Connections."

After opening remarks by Co-Directors Melissa Runge-Morris and Carol Miller, Session 1 showcased some great examples of effective collaboration outcomes at CLEAR, from epidemiological sampling to phytoscreening, and from centerwide chemical analysis to disaster response, by Jennifer Straughen, Andrea Cassidy-Bushrow, Brendan O'Leary, Paul Stemmer, and Nicholas Peraino.

Session 2 featured special guests Matt Cave (University of Louisville Superfund Research Center) and Anna Hoover (University of Kentucky Superfund Research Center) talking about the opportunities, challenges and best practices for environmental health collaboration, with Q&A moderated by Rahul Mitra.

Session 3 of the CLEAR Symposium featured Teresa Holtrop of Kid's Health Connections, Shirley Mann Gray, MSW, LMSW of the Detroit Dept. of Health, Lyke Thompson, and Sonia Hassan from the WSU Office of Women’s Health on discussions to organize a community-led coalition to address VOC impacts in Detroit.

Finally, congratulations to all the CLEAR trainees who presented lightning talks on their funded pilot projects in Session 4, facilitated by Michael Petriello and Donna Kashian, who fielded questions for the poster session concluding the day!

Much thanks to our amazing program manager Lara Treemore Spears for doing so much of the heavy lifting behind the scenes to organize this event! And to Karina Branson for her graphic recording skills which captured the discussions at the event, so we may better communicate this work with broader audiences. You can watch Karina’s videos on our YouTube channel here.