WHCOHH Community Engagement Core

The overall goal of the Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health Community Engagement Core (WHCOHH CEC) is to prevent human heath exposure to harmful algal bloom (HAB) toxins by: (1) strengthening collaboration and information sharing among regional stakeholder communities concerned with HAB impacts; (2) expanding classroom education in Oceans and Human Health (OHH) science; and (3) actively engaging healthcare and public health communities to improve awareness and diagnosis of OHHrelated illnesses. Proposed CEC activities build on programs, capabilities, and infrastructure developed under the current WHCOHH grant, but include new directions and audiences to increase reach and impact. The CEC will continue to foster communication and data sharing with stakeholders in New England and will initiate new efforts to promote training and technology transfer. Proposed activities will further the development and adoption of the WHOI HABhub data portal, an open source webserver that aggregates HAB data in near real time. New functionality will enable user participation in sensor image classification, providing all users with deeper engagement and education related to HAB identification and importance while soliciting meaningful contributions to ongoing research. Our educational outreach will develop innovative materials and programs to serve as model curricula for teaching OHH concepts and content. Finally, our efforts to develop effective involvement of public health and healthcare providers and professionals in OHH address an area of engagement that has been identified as a priority need for improving the accurate and timely diagnosis and reporting of illnesses caused by OHH threats. Our efforts are local, regional, and national in scope, and involve partners with substantial expertise and depth of experience in OHH and community engagement, as well as the active participation of WHCOHH investigators to promote transparent communications and multi-directional exchange of information. The CEC plan for evaluation is robust and includes joining with the Administrative Core to establish a CEC Advisory Committee (CEC-AC) to regularly evaluate CEC progress and success. Metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of CEC activities will be defined in collaboration with partners and WHCOHH investigators, and are included in a program logic model for the CEC to evaluate efficacy over time.