Six ECU faculty members collaborate on new book
Faculty members from ECU who collaborated on a new environmental health book recently presented copies to Elizabeth “Beth” Ketterman, director of Laupus Library, (far left bottom row) and Janice Lewis, director of Joyner Library (next to Ketterman). The faculty are top row left to right, Dr. Tim Kelley, Dr. Greg Kearney, Dr. Paul Knechtges and Dr. Charlie Humphrey, and bottom row left to right, Ketterman and Lewis with Dr. Jo Anne Balanay and Dr. Stephanie Richards. (Contributed photo)
Six faculty members from East Carolina University have collaborated on a new book focusing on the theory and science behind environmental health as well as real world issues faced by practitioners.
ECU’s Dr. Greg Kearney and Dr. Paul Knechtges, along with Dr. Beth Resnick from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, are co-editors of “Environmental Public Health: The Practitioner’s Guide.”
ECU faculty members Dr. Jo Anne Balanay, Dr. Charles Humphrey, Dr. Stephanie Richards and Dr. Tim Kelley are chapter contributors. They recently donated copies of the 922-page book to Joyner and Laupus libraries.
Environmental health is a branch of public health that is concerned with all aspects of how the natural and built environment affects human health.
According to the American Public Health Association Press, the book covers the structure, tools, programs and services of environmental public health. Its systems approach will help equip the next generation of environmental health leaders with the tools to tackle challenges that lie ahead, said a news release on the book.
“This is an all-in-one handbook for people getting started in the field and a reference for practitioners throughout their careers,” the release said. “At the same time, the material is designed to be accessible to those who are not environmental public health experts, such as community stakeholders, agencies, educators, policymakers and other groups.”
The guide is expected to be available and distributed to county and state health departments nationwide, said Kelley, director of the ECU environmental health master’s program.
The book has been a collaboration between the ECU Brody School of Medicine’s Department of Public Health and the College of Health and Human Performance’s Department of Health Education and Promotion, where the bachelor and master’s programs in environmental health are located.
In addition, a new doctoral program with a concentration in environmental and occupational health will be part of the developing ECU School of Rural Public Health. The departments of health education and promotion and public health are expected to join the new school in 2020.
To order the book, call 888-320-APHA, email apha@pbd.com or visit www.aphabookstore.org.
-by Crystal Baity, ECU News Services