Community Engagement Core

Our Community Engagement Core is a collaboration between faculty and students at Michigan State University and staff of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Together, we have selected three Michigan communities that are affected by environmental contamination and are working to:

Listen, to the major concerns in each community through an Annual Community Health Survey and a Local Advisory Group made up of people living and working in our target communities.

Empower, residents by working together to ensure MDHHS' ongoing efforts to educate communities about the best ways to keep themselves healthy are directly responsive to the major concerns we collected.

Evaluate, the extent to which these targeted health education efforts help to foster a trusting relationship between the MDHHS and these communities.

We are also working with partners in the larger Superfund Research Center and across the entire program to better position them to build trust with the various individuals and groups impacted by their work.

Our Team

• Joseph Hamm, Ph.D.

  Joseph Hamm, Ph.D.
  Core Leader, Michigan State University
  Email Dr. Hamm

   

   

   

• Kristin Ward

  Kristin Ward
  Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Environmental Health
  

   

   

   

• Adam Zwickle, Ph.D.

  Adam Zwickle, Ph.D.
  Co-Investigator, Michigan State University
  Email Dr. Zwickle

   

   

   

• Latifa Salangi

  Latifa Salangi, Ph.D.
  Graduate Assistant, Michigan State University
  Email Ms. Salangi

   

   

   

• Rachel Szczytko

  Rachel Szczytko, Ph.D.
  Graduate Assistant, Michigan State University
  Email Ms. Szczytko

   

   

Annual Community Health Survey

The Annual Community Health Survey is an online survey that is fielded in all three communities in the spring of each year. Participation is restricted to individuals currently living in target communities and the survey is designed to collect the major concerns that people living in these communities experience regarding the things that get in the way of their community's health. View the PDF links below to learn more. 

Otsego Year 1 Findings (PDF)

Saginaw Year 1 Findings (PDF)

St. Clair Shores Year 1 Findings (PDF)

 

Local Advisory Group

The Local Advisory Group is made up of individuals who live or work in our target communities. Although we work closely with this group throughout the year, once per semester, we meet as a group to solicit their local knowledge and expertise in how best to collect community perspectives, making sense out of the data collected in the Annual Community Health Survey, and ensuring that the health education efforts are best positioned to actually help communities.

• Brian
  LAG Member, Saginaw
• Esperanza
  LAG Member, Saginaw
• Hannah
  LAG Member, Saginaw
• Lena
  LAG Member, Otsego
• Partow
  LAG Member, Toxicologist at the Macomb County Health Department, St. Clair Shores
• Rosemary

  LAG Member, Otsego resident since 1980, Otsego

   

   

   

   

• Sharon
  LAG Member, Waterfront Environmental Committee member, St. Clair Shores
• Stephanie B.

  LAG Member, Associate Professor of Counselor Education at WMU, Otsego

   

   

   

• Stephanie R.
  LAG Member, Health Educator at the Allegan County Health Department]
• Tracy
  LAG Member, Community Health Improvement Coordinator at the Saginaw County Health Department, Saginaw