Community Engagement

Community engagement is at the core of our center’s research. We aim to align our solutions-oriented studies with the concerns of our local community and co-design community outreach campaigns and interventions. Community knowledge provides critical insights, fosters trust, and ensures that research findings are relevant and actionable. This collaborative approach not only improves the quality of the research, but also enhances its impact on public health by ensuring that solutions are practical and widely accepted.

Recent Community Events

June 22nd, 2024

Santa Ana Clean Water Initiative (SACWI) Block Party

In the month of June, the PFAS Act study team at USC joined the Water Insecurity Correction Coalition (WICC) and the Orange County Environmental Justice (OCEJ) organization for the Santa Ana Clean Water Initiative (SACWI) Block Party Event in Santa Ana’s Delhi Park community. The Santa Ana Clean Water Initiative is a community-oriented initiative which aims to improve health outcomes by addressing community concerns about drinking water contamination including Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) or more commonly known as “forever chemicals”. During this event, the PFAS Act study team provided educational materials on PFAS and engaged with community members to address community concerns about PFAS in their drinking water and other common consumer products. OCEJ and UCI (their academic partner) are currently conducting water sampling in Santa Ana homes. We continue to engage in this partnership by sharing study methods, best practices and resources that will ultimately help community members in Los Angeles and Orange County.

Associate Director for Community Engaged Research

Max Aung, PhD, MPH

Dr. Max Aung is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Environmental Health at the University of Southern California. His research focuses on applying data science frameworks to understand potential mechanisms linking chemical mixtures to health across the life course and pursue environmental justice. He specifically integrates multiple hierarchies of exogenous and endogenous biomarkers, including biomonitored toxicant exposures, targeted bioactive lipids, and untargeted lipidomics and metabolomics. His current funded projects focus on integrating these biomarkers in diverse prospective cohorts to better understand mechanisms linking the human exposome to maternal health outcomes, child neurodevelopment, and cancer outcomes.

maxaung@usc.edu

Community Engagement Team

Tamar Galindo
Community Engagement Coordinator

Sherlock Li
Postdoctoral Scholar

Liz Costello
Postdoctoral Scholar

Ana-Sofia Arena
Project Specialist

Nico Gentile
PhD Student

Thomas Manea
Research Assistant