Community Partners
“The Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute is part of our community- Louisville, Kentucky. We are committed to learning and working with and through community members to understand and remove barriers to individual health imposed by unconducive urban environments. We are committed to improving the urban environments to promote healthy living.”
Scholars-in-Residence
The Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute is part of our community- Louisville, Kentucky. We are committed to learning and working with and through community members to understand and remove barriers to individual health imposed by unconducive urban environments. We are committed to improving the urban environments to promote healthy living.
We know that we live in a complex world of interconnectedness, prompting us to explore and find comprehensive solutions that are born out of collaboration. This is why our research works best when it involves community members who are equally passionate about this important work. One way that community members can provide leadership to the Envirome is by becoming a Scholar-in-Residence. Scholars-in-Residence are civic leaders who are interested in furthering the work and reach of the Institute. Scholars-in-residence will be able to connect the Envirome Institute to potential projects, collaborators, and further our educational mission.
Arnita Gadson, Environmental Justice Expert
Arnita will help guide our research agenda and connect our researchers and students to interested groups who live and work in West Jefferson County and other important parts of the Commonwealth.
Arnita is a steward for those with environmental concerns. Formerly serving as the Executive Director of the Environmental Quality Commission in Louisville, she has managed Louisville's air pollution by securing funding that established a state-of-the-art laboratory at the University of Louisville to measure air toxins. Her achievement prevented human suffering and contributed to the Louisville economy by protecting the health of each citizen. Arnita is currently the Executive Director of the West Jefferson Community Task Force.
Tod Sedgwick, US Ambassador (retired)
Tod will connect students to visiting speakers and provide opportunities to meet current and retired public sector leaders and noteworthy guests.
Ambassador Tod Sedgwick previously served as U.S. Ambassador to the Slovak Republic from 2010 to 2015. He is a Fellow at the Transatlantic Center at The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Study and a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, positions he has held since 2015. He is a member of the Ambassadorial Advisory Committee of the Atlantic Council and is on the board of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems.
Since 2015, Sedgwick has served on the Board of Directors for the Slovak American Foundation. He is a former trustee of the Institute of Current World Affairs. He has previously served on the Board of Directors for the Folger Shakespeare Library, Shakespeare Theater Co., the Civil War Preservation Trust, and the Wetlands America Trust. Sedgwick received an A.B. from Harvard College.
Distinguished Community Collaborators
The Division of Environmental Medicine, the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute, and the affiliated Centers value the partnership and collaboration organizations and agencies across Louisville can bring to our research agenda. We formally recognize individuals who have helped us to establish meaningful working relationships in the Louisville community.
The Distinguished Community Partner Award is given to Louisville community members that contribute broadly to the success of the Envirome’s research. This can include contributions to the design and execution of research projects, contributions to grant proposals and manuscripts for publication, and contributions to operational fieldwork.
Louisville is our urban, living laboratory and that changes the way our research is done - from the design of individual studies to sharing research findings with the larger world. Making Louisville our urban laboratory means that everyone who lives in Louisville is a stakeholder. Through people-centered partnerships, we invite individuals, groups, communities, guest researchers, government, corporations, and nonprofits to join us in creating and supporting environmental health research opportunities.
For a living laboratory to work, we need people to participate in our research in a variety of ways; from representing their community on Advisory Councils, to sharing ideas about what research needs to be done in their neighborhoods, to helping establish collaborative partnerships with organizations that further the reach of our research. Recipients of the Distinguished Community Partner Award do just this- they strengthen the town and gown relationship between Louisville and the University.
2021 Distinguished Community Collaborators
Want to learn more about the Envirome’s Community Partners? Please email envirome@louisville.edu
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