The New York State Children’s Environmental Health Centers (NYSCHECK) is pleased to announce the 2025 call for Environmental Health (EH) Scholars. The EH Scholars Program is a 2-year program designed to create a pipeline of future leaders in children’s environmental health.
Scholars work at one of the 7 NYSCHECK centers. Each scholar designs and implements a priority environmental health project for their center which aligns with the NYSCHECK mission. Scholars are mentored by experts in the field of pediatric environmental health, epidemiology, toxicology, and public health. They learn about the fundamentals of environmental risk assessment and risk communication and have opportunities to engage in wide ranging learning and health advocacy opportunities. Scholars come from diverse fields including medicine, social work, public health and environmental health.
Applications are due on or before September 8, 2025.
Download the application here.
Current 2023-2025 NYSCHECK EH Scholars
Emma Chang, RN, MPH and Hannah Thompson, MD, MPH – NYC CEHC
Protect Title: Responding to Pediatric Environmental Health Concerns of NYS Families
The New York State (NYS) Children’s Environmental Health Centers (NYSCHECK) and Region 2 Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU) provide expert guidance on environmental health (EH) concerns to families and clinicians via a call center. This project evaluated call characteristics, response times, and team workload with the goal of streamlining operations and improving service delivery to families and their health care providers.
Kelly Galloway, MPH – Albany CEHC
Project Title: Leveraging Community Resources in the Capital Region to Address Housing and Environmental Health Needs
This project was designed to expand community-based resources provided to families in the Capital District. In 2023, 39% of families screened for social determinants of health at the pediatric primary care clinic indicated at least one housing-related concern. The project included a written survey and semi-structured interview with community-based organizations. The project yielded a deeper knowledge of the programs and services within the Capital Region and resulted in expanded resources in the center’s resource database.
Vaidehi (Vidi) Jokhakar, LCSW, MPH – LI CEHC
Project Title: Promoting Youth Leadership to Address Climate Change Through Waste Diversion in Nassau County High School
This project replicated the Cafeteria Culture “Sort and Save” program at a high school in Nassau County, NY. The project was led by students, with the EH Scholar providing mentorship. Students learned how to create a zero-waste cafeteria and piloted a waste reduction plan involving visual and gestural prompting to encourage appropriate sorting of 3 waste streams (true waste, mixed recyclables and compostables). Students calculated waste reduction and, working with the student council and school leaders, used this information to advocate for school policy change to support recycling.
Christy Kim, MD and Zachary Messer, MPH – HVCEHC
Project Title: Severe Asthma Registry
This project developed and implemented a Severe Asthma Registry to provide enhanced services for children with severe asthma. The registry captures valuable information enabling the center to better understand factors affecting young people with severe asthma in the Hudson Valley. Patients also receive enhanced services including EH interventions to mitigate triggers and improve asthma control.
Olivia Malvasi, MPH – CNYCEHC
Project Title: I-81 Pollution Monitoring and Community Engagement
This community engagement project centered on a construction revitalization project in Syracuse to remove and replace the I-81 viaduct. The project included (1) a comprehensive community health needs assessment designed to capture community health concerns and priorities; (2) environmental monitoring; and (3) community health education and partnerships with community stakeholders. The project is on-going but has already yielded strong partnerships that will be valuable to the project and to the Central New York Children’s Environmental Health Center.
Christina Padgett, DO, MHS, FAAP – Western New York Children’s Environmental Health Center (CEHC)
Project Title: Advancing Pediatric Resident Medical Education to Meet the Climate Crisis
This project developed, implemented, and evaluated a climate change and health (CCH) curriculum. The curriculum was tailored to pediatric residents and designed to improve knowledge and comfort to integrate relevant CCH content into discussions with patients and to promote advocacy. The integration was successful and has become part of the at the Jacobs School of Medicine residency curriculum at University of Buffalo.
Rebekah Prasad, FNP, MSPH – FLCEHC
Project Title: Enhancing Care for Children with Lead Poisoning in Pediatric Primary Care
This project developed, implemented, and evaluated a new standard of care for children with lead poisoning in an urban primary care practice. Using a multi-disciplinary approach, families were provided with enhanced screening for developmental delays and environmental exposures and referred to services to address these issues. Evaluation results informed a new standard of care that has been adopted by the clinic for children with lead poisoning.
Pelumi Soyemi, MPH – LI CEHC
Project Title: Wyandanch Photovoice Project
This community engagement project was designed to (1) empower families to document their lived environmental health (EH) challenges through photography and storytelling and (2) foster greater EH community awareness, engagement, and advocacy. It focused on Wyandanch, a suburban community with the highest rate of pediatric emergency room visits on Long Island and a range of EH issues.
Laurie Thibodeau, MD – Albany CEHC
Project Title: Climate Informed Medicine: Educating Tomorrow’s Physicians
This project developed and implemented a 3-phase, climate and health curriculum into the medical school curriculum at Albany Medical College. The curriculum includes a half-day orientation for all incoming medical students, integration of climate and health into existing pre-clinical blocks and a planetary health elective. Initial evaluation showed marked increase in knowledge and recognition of the importance of the training for future physicians. The integration was successful and has become part of the medical school curriculum.