NIEHS SRP and External Advisory Committee visit, tour CLEAR

On June 13 and 14th, CLEAR hosted the External Advisory Committee and staff members from the NIEHS Superfund Research Program. CLEAR's External Advisory Committee includes representatives from the Ecology Center, Open Arms Program Kids Health Connection, and CLEARCorps Detroit. The purpose of an External Advisory Committee is to assist in achieving the program's goals. The objectives of the visit were to review CLEAR's implementation of EAC input from previous meetings, discuss CLEAR's projects and activities, and develop EAC's role and future efforts.

The visit began with an introduction of CLEAR's progress over the past two years by co-directors Dr. Melissa Runge-Morris and Dr. Carol Miller. Then, each project and core leader gave updates on their accomplishments from Year 2, and plans for Year 3, followed by input and questions from the EAC. The EAC and NIEHS representatives then took a tours of the VOC fieldsites for Projects 1 & 2, and toured laboratory spaces, including the Lumigen Instrument Center and Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.

The following day, CLEAR trainees gave lightning talks, which was followed by a community roundtable between Community Advisory Board, External Advisory Committee, NIEHS leaders, CLEAR Project and Core leaders, and trainees. The meeting will help facilitate the next three years of CLEAR funding, and work towards enhanced research development and community engagement about VOC pollution in Detroit. The two-day event concluded with a stop at Detroit's infamous community art site the Heidelberg Project.