Joel Ybe, PhD, poses next to William Hetrick, PhD, the Indiana CTSI’s Deputy Director for the Bloomington campus.
The ways that the environment impacts people’s health and well-being was at the forefront of this year’s campus retreat at Indiana University Bloomington.
The retreat took place on April 24, 2024, and about 120 people attended according to Joel Ybe, PhD, who is the Indiana CTSI navigator for the Bloomington campus.
The speakers included faculty from IU Bloomington, IU Indianapolis, and out-of-state institutions. Also on the agenda were Lindsay Weaver, MD, Indiana State Health Commissioner, and Rick Woychik, PhD, the director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), who delivered the keynote address, “Looking to the Future of Environmental Health Sciences.”
“It was eye-opening to hear Dr. Weaver speak about ticks and other disease-carrying vectors spreading in our state; numerous speakers share how environmental science plays a critical role in assessing exposure to toxicants; and all the speakers discuss how a host of factors associated with exposure can challenge rural and urban communities,” said Ybe.
Speaker Gabe Filippelli, PhD, who is the executive director of the IU Environmental Resilience Institute, said he appreciated the opportunity to learn more about his colleagues’ work at the retreat, and to network and collaborate in person.
“It was truly an idea-incubator!” he said.
During his presentation on community-engaged interventions for reducing lead exposure, Flippelli shared that the Indiana CTSI’s support “literally changed the arc” of his career.
“After a long career working on climate change, I became increasingly interested in helping to solve the ongoing challenge of lead poisoning in urban children,” he said. He was guided to a Project Development Team (PDT), whose support and mentorship were “foundational.”
As a result, Flippelli is now known for his lead exposure work, and he has “been able to build out a national network for lead identification, awareness, and community science thanks to support from the Indiana CTSI,” he said.
During the retreat, attendees also heard from Russell J. Mumper, PhD, Vice President for Research at IU, and Indiana CTSI Co-Directors Sharon Moe, MD, and Sarah Wiehe, MD, MPH.
Moe and Wiehe had a key message for attendees and investigators: Your success is our success.
“How can we help power your next project?” they asked, directing investigators to reach out to their campus navigators to learn more.
They also highlighted Indiana CTSI resources unique to the Bloomington campus, including the Grant Linking University-wide Expertise (GLUE) Award, the Translational Public Health Award; 12 Designated Indiana CTSI Service Cores; and several PDTs (Social, Behavioral, and Brain Health; the Networks, Complex Systems & Health; and Rural Obesity).
Additionally, Moe and Wiehe shared new information about the 2024 Indiana CTSI Annual Meeting, which will happen on September 20 in Indianapolis. They also encouraged attendees to mark their calendars for additional upcoming campus retreats at IU School of Medicine-Evansville on August 14 and at the University of Notre Dame on October 14. More information about those events will be available soon.
