Emory University
EN-10: Community Partnerships

MedShare is a nonprofit organization that recovers and redistributes surplus medical supplies and equipment. In doing so, it directly supports six of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, these being Good Health & Wellbeing, Responsible Consumption & Production, Reduced Inequalities, Quality Education, Climate Action, and Partnerships for the Goals. 

Emory's involvement in MedShare dates back to 1998 when it was founded by former Emory employees. In the decades before the COVID-19 pandemic, Emory University and Emory Healthcare worked with MedShare to provide a wide variety of critically needed medical supplies and equipment like gloves, gowns, syringes, incubators, and beds to hospitals in medically underserved communities around the world. Without MedShare, these supplies would be incinerated or landfilled, negatively impacting the environment when they could have helped those in need. 

Post-pandemic, MedShare stopped accepting expired supplies and is not able to perform regular pick-ups but Emory Healthcare continues to collect supplies and schedule intermittent pick-ups as we rebuild the relationship.

https://www.medshare.org/ 

The United Nations Regional Centre of Expertise (RCE) Greater Atlanta is a diverse network of local stakeholders committed to advancing and teaching the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at local and regional scales. In 2017, the RCE Greater Atlanta was officially recognized by the United Nations University as one of 168 RCE networks in the world and one of only 6 in the country. Emory University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Spelman College co-wrote the RCE Greater Atlanta application, which established the network that now includes several other Georgia higher education institutions as members: Agnes Scott College, Atlanta Metropolitan State College, Clark Atlanta University, Georgia State University, Kennesaw State University, Morehouse College and the University of Georgia. Collaborators also include businesses, non-governmental organizations, community associations, and local, regional, state and federal governments. Partners who submitted letters of support for the application include the Atlanta Regional Commission, Captain Planet Foundation, Center for Sustainable Communities, City of Atlanta, Corporate Volunteer Council, Greenhouse Accelerator Inc., Ray C. Anderson Foundation, Saving Our Sons & Sisters International, Southface, and the United Nations Foundation. The RCE’s primary work is to offer broad-based educational and training programs to support regional sustainable development efforts. It endeavors to advance knowledge and action around the SDGs while modeling inclusive & collaborative community and nurturing strong youth leadership. Its guiding principles include building intergenerational relationships, advancing equity, building on members’ skills and assets, fostering a diverse membership, acting as SDG advocates, and more.

During the reporting period, Emory staff have attended quarterly meetings, served as a co-chair of the Advancing Justice for All subcommittee, served as student mentors and Emory's HERCULES Exposome Research Center and Center for Community Engagement (CCE) have served in the Community of Practice.

https://rcega.org/

https://sustainability.emory.edu/programs/un-sustainable-development-goals/

The Turner Environmental Law Clinic gives students hands-on experience working in environmental law. The Clinic provides pro bono legal representation to individuals, community groups, and nonprofit organizations that seek to protect and restore the natural environment and promote environmental justice. Key topics include fighting for clean and sustainable energy, promoting regenerative agriculture and local food systems, and protecting natural resources.

During the reporting period, the Turner Environmental Law Clinic and co-authors recently released the Environmental Justice Green Book (EJGB), a website that Director Mindy Goldstein says is a unique toolkit for communities to fight coal-fired plants, factories, landfills, trash transfer stations, biowaste facilities, and transportation hubs that are still often sited in non-white communities.

https://law.emory.edu/academics/clinics/faculty-led-clinics/turner-environmental-law-clinic.html

https://law.emory.edu/news-and-events/releases/2023/09/turner-environmental-justice-green-book-2023.html

Urban Health Initiative (UHI) UHI began in 2011 through the initiative of William Sexson, MD of the Emory University School of Medicine, and Carlos Del Rio, MD of the Emory University School of Medicine and the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. UHI’s mission is to improve the health of and decrease disparities among diverse and underserved populations in Atlanta. It endeavors to provide education and advocacy concerning health disparities, build collaborative partnerships, and develop best practice models with low-resourced communities and those who work with them. UHI focuses on five priority areas of metro Atlanta. Its current projects empower community organizations by providing seed grants, advisory support, and educational programs & workshops to community residents. Furthermore, UHI’s projects actively include community members in project planning, implementation, etc. One notable project is an organic community teaching garden in Northwest Atlanta which called upon residents and community partners to help teach gardening, cooking, and nutrition classes while growing free produce for an area that suffered from limited grocery options. Emory students consistently provided volunteer work throughout the process of relocating the garden. Through projects such as these, UHI progresses toward its vision of communities working together to eliminate health disparities and social determinants of health inequity. http://www.urbanhealthinitiative.emory.edu/

South Georgia Farmworker Health Project: The South Georgia Farmworker Health Project (SGFHP) began in 1996 at the Emory School of Medicine with eight Physicians Assistant (PA) students, three PA faculty, and one physician, under the direction of Tom Himelick, an Emory faculty member in the PA Program. Today, the SGFHP is a multidisciplinary effort involving some 200 students, clinicians, interpreters, and logistics volunteers. It has become the hallmark initiative of the PA Program and received national recognition for its culturally appropriate delivery of care for an often-overlooked population—migrant farmworkers. Each June, rotating morning and afternoon clinics provide free care for 1,800+ farmworkers and their families over 12 days. Teams see an additional 300 workers during an October weekend clinic. From 1996-2018, a total of 28,000+ farmworkers were served. Clinics are staffed primarily by Emory PA students, faculty, and clinicians and assisted by Emory physical therapy and medical students. The clinics are also staffed by representatives of the other Georgia universities and colleges that partner with Emory: Mercer University, Valdosta State University, Bainbridge College, University of Georgia, and Morehouse University. Spanish and Creole interpreters from Atlanta, South Georgia, and Florida volunteer as well. SGFHP clinical teams have treated a range of patients, including people who have never been seen by a provider, women in labor, and workers with serious chronic illnesses. It’s a time of invaluable learning and service that affects everyone involved and honors the PA mission to provide quality, accessible, and cost-effective care. https://news.emory.edu/features/2018/11/learning-fields/index.html

HERCULES Exposome Research Center is a collaboration between Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health and Georgia Tech, originally funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in May 2013. The primary aim of the HERCULES Exposome Research Center is to serve as an intellectual hub in the advancement and translation of exposome research (exposome being the environmental exposures that an individual encounters throughout their lifetime, and how these exposures impact their biology) to improve human health. Hercules is achieving this vision by conducting high-impact environmental health research at their home institutions (Emory Rollins School of Public Health and Georgia Tech), developing collaborations with researchers across the USA, and building relationships and partnerships with members of the Atlanta community to determine how environmental exposures affect health and community wellbeing at a local level. For example, one research project assessed soil lead contamination in West Atlanta, which has led to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) action to remediate soil in that area. The project was also awarded $1.35 million in funding from the EPA to continue researching any potential risks in the area for exposures among children to lead and heavy metals and metalloids, along with other environmental contaminants.

https://emoryhercules.com/ 

Ciannat Howett, Associate Vice President of Sustainability, Resilience, and Economic Inclusion, serves on the City of Atlanta's Clean Energy Advisory board in a mentoring role. Given her professional experience leading Emory's sustainability program for 18 years, she was appointed to help the city set and achieve its ambitious clean energy goal (100% clean energy by 2035) based on Emory's own sustainability efforts and successes. This relationship has only grown since Emory's most recent strategic plan (https://one.emory.edu) includes a plank titled "Emory + Atlanta: Rich History, Shared Future" signaling the integration and shared aims of the university and the city.

Atlanta Clean Energy Advisory Board: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5f91d62189677674f6d02ab6/t/642f16d98c3fe715767a4c76/1680807641592/March+14%2C+2023_Clean+Energy+Advisory+Board_Meeting+Minutes.pdf (meeting minutes with Ciannat Howett listed)

All data reported in this section are from September 2022-August 2023