NIEHS’ Dr. Joan Packenham named an HHS Women’s Health Ambassador for National Women’s Health Week.
About the Program
The Women’s Health Awareness (WHA) Community Engagement Program is an innovative environmental health research, public health practice and advocacy initiative. The Program is located within the Office of Human Research and Community Engagement (OHRCE), Clinical Research Branch (CRB), National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). WHA engages women across North Carolina and beyond, with a focus on understudied, underrepresented, underreported, and underserved (U4) populations.
The Program has the following aims:
- To provide evidence-based community health interventions to promote wellness, environmental health literacy, and environmental public health.
- To examine and respond to environmental health disparities utilizing a racial and gender equity lens.
- To advocate for environmental justice issues and support the building of localized community health resiliency.
- To train students, researchers and post-doctoral fellows, and clinical and public health practitioners in community and environmental health research and practice.
WHA Mission Statement
Our mission is to conduct community-engaged research, educate and advocate on the intersecting issues of environmental health disparities, environmental and social justice, health and well-being, and gender and racial inequities to build community-based health resiliency. This includes utilizing community partnerships to support the development of research, evidence-based interventions and health education and environmental literacy aimed at empowering women to take responsibility for their health, understand the critical intersections of health and the environment, and to advocate on environmental justice issues directly impacting their communities.
Institutional Linkage
The Women’s Health Awareness (WHA) Community Engagement Program, housed within the NIEHS, seeks to enhance research for U4 populations of women across their lifespan. The WHA Program specifically supports the following themes outlined in the NIEHS Strategic Plan (2018-2023):
- Advance Environmental Health Sciences (EHS)
- Enhance EHS through stewardship and support
- Promote translation – data to knowledge to action
To learn more about how the WHA Program directly supports each of these thematic areas, please visit Research and Projects and Education and Outreach.
Program Team
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Joan P. Packenham, Ph.D.
Director, NIEHS Office of Human Research and Community Engagement (OHRCE);
DIR CRB -
Tel 984-287-4413
[email protected]
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Jaslyn A. Grullon, M.P.H.
Contractor - Scientific Program Analyst -
Tel 984-287-4999
[email protected]
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Jane M. Lambert
Regulatory Affairs Specialist -
Tel 984-287-4419
[email protected]
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Mya N. Love-Whitley
Fellow - IRTA Postbaccalaureate -
Tel 984-287-4415
[email protected]
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Jennifer A. Profanchik
Contractor - Phlebotomist - [email protected]
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Craig Wladyka, M.P.A., CIP
Clinical Protocol Coordinator -
Tel 984-287-4425
[email protected]