$8.5M grant supports next generation of worker health experts   

UTHealth Houston School of Public Health researchers in the Southwest Center for Occupational and Environmental Health received an $8.5 million, five-year grant to strengthen education, research, and training for the next generation of professionals dedicated to protecting workers' health and safety.  
  
The training grant is awarded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's Education and Research Center in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Led by principal investigator Sarah Felknor, DrPH, it will support graduate students preparing to address workplace hazards and emerging threats to workers' health and well-being.   
  
"This award represents a major investment in the future of the occupational and environmental health workforce," said Felknor, director of the Southwest Center for Occupational and Environmental Health and a professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health. "The funding allows us to build on nearly five decades of experience preparing professionals who protect the health and safety of workers."   
  
The award continues the center's designation as a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Education and Research Center, a status it has held since 1977. The Southwest Center for Occupational and Environmental Health is one of 18 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Education and Research Centers nationwide and the only one based in Texas.  
  
Over the next five years, funding will support students pursuing training in industrial hygiene, occupational and environmental medicine, occupational epidemiology, and the Total Worker Health® program. It will also support pilot research and doctoral projects addressing critical issues in worker health, safety, and well-being.  
  
As occupational and environmental health professionals face an increasingly complex landscape of workplace challenges, students at the School of Public Health will be well-equipped to address these pressing issues. Researchers are studying ways to protect workers in high-risk occupations from environmental and occupational health threats, including chemical exposures, cancer risk, climate-related heat stress, and disasters. This work advances worker health, safety and well-being through early detection, prevention, education, and improved access to healthcare and social services.

"Traditional occupational hazards are intersecting with new and increasingly complex challenges," Felknor said. "Ultimately, this funding is about having the people and scientific capacity to anticipate those challenges rather than simply react to them."   
  
That work extends beyond identifying hazards. The center also focuses on translating scientific discoveries into solutions that can improve working conditions. "Our goal isn't simply to identify occupational and environmental hazards," Felknor said. "It's to translate what we learn into interventions, policies, and practices that make workplaces safer and healthier."   
  
The $8.5 million award will help the School of Public Health strengthen that pipeline, from educating public health students to conducting research and translating scientific findings into safer, healthier workplaces and communities.