WHEN awarded 14 women from the Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley regions scholarships to attend the Women's Health and the Environment conference in Pittsburgh in 2007 to learn about the impacts to health from exposures in our everyday environments and in turn inform and educate others in their communities.
Read about these diverse and accomplished women and what they planned to do with the information they gleaned from the conference.
Michelle Badorf, Medical Student
Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
Michelle is a fourth year medical student whol will be a pediatrics resident at A.I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware. She is interested in working towards making the pediatric population and families more aware of environmental issues because a healthy environment can lead to a much healthier patient population.
Michelle will have an opportunity to initiate an educational program as part of fulfilling her residency requirement and will incorporate some topics from the conference into a poster presentation or group learning activity for pediatric patients and their parents. She will explore making a PowerPoint presentation during either morning report or noon conference at duPont Hospital to educate her fellow pediatric residents and attendings on current environmental issues that are affecting patient populations.
Christine “Kiki” Bolender, Partner
Schade and Bolender Architects LLP, Philadelphia, PA
Kiki is a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Accredited Professional. Active in the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) on issues of sustainability and renewable resources, Kiki is the AIA representative to the Next Great City initiative.
Kiki hopes to use the insights gained from the conference to share information and new thinking with fellow architects and clients. Specifically, she will make the topic on environmental health at a meeting for the AIA Urban Design Committee. She expects to share with other women the concept of healthy lives.
Rochelle Bray (nee Halko), Research Tech. Assistant
Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA
Rochelle is a Public Health student and hopes to concentrate her Masters in environmental terategens. She will be working on an evaluation tool on health and the environment. The conference will provide her with a better understanding of realistic goals for environmental change as well as provide insight in improving awareness regarding environmental health and ways to inspire change.
Rochelle will present information from the conference at a brown bag forum at Jefferson University and create information packets to be passed out at the forum. In addition, she will organize a cocktail party for the women in her life and the women they care about. At this ‘toast to our health’ gathering, Rochelle will discuss the details from the conference. Again, pamphlets will be distributed and possibly copies of A Silent Spring.
Rosemarie D’Alba Cipriano, Artist/Adjunct Faculty
Philadelphia University, Philadelphia, PA
A medical illustrator for over 10 years, and now teaching art, Rosemarie recognizes the risk of being exposed to contaminants while creating art. Her choices of media and her studio operation are designed to avoid exposure to toxins and to practice safety measures during exposure to dangerous materials. Each semester, she teaches students about safety with materials.
Rosemarie will develop a simple material safety pamphlet or a safe handling poster to share with students and other art programs. Her combined experiences as an artist, medical illustrator, professor and graphic designer will give her the tools to accomplish this and engage other artists.
Jenna Crist, Professional Student Nurse’s Aide (PSNA)
Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network, Bethlehem, PA
As a nurse, Jenna has the unique ability to help patients work towards a healthy balanced life through education and leadership for taking action to create a clean and safe environment. She is completing her nursing degree at Cedar Crest College in Allentown.
Jenna will bring the information from the conference into the hospital where she is helping to create a “Green Team” consisting of employees who are interested in making environmental changes in the hospital. She also plans to introduce environmental health at a women’s shelter where she will begin volunteering in May.
Alisha Deen-Steindler, Eastern PA Director
Clean Water Fund, Philadelphia, PA
Alisha believes that women are bombarded with unhealthy pollutants and contaminants and is concerned about the effects on developing fetuses. She recently moved to Pennsylvania from California where she worked on and fundraised for the Environmental Health Legislative Working Group (EHLWG) Lobby Day in Sacramento, CA for three years.
At CWF, she works on water and air pollution, chemical contamination, and pesticide exposure affecting Philadelphians. She will build on her knowledge to reevaluate and revitalize community monitoring work, identify new women leaders through the Bucket Brigade program, and conduct community monitoring and environmental health workshops throughout Philadelphia.
Tiffany Dovydaitis, Women’s Health NP (Occupational/Environmental Health minor) and PhD student
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Tiffany is completing a nurse practitioner degree in women’s health with a minor in occupational and environmental health and enrolled in the PhD program. She studies under an instructor whose background is in both women’s and environmental health.
She will use the conference to educate patients about environmental and chemical exposures including mercury/PCB exposure in fish to nanoparticles in cosmetics. She expects to use her role of professor and researcher to teach students about environmental and women’s health care issues.
Lauren Michelle Gordon, Environmental/Occupational Health Student
Drexel University School of Public Health, Philadelphia, PA
Lauren’s concentration is Environmental/Occupational Health focusing on issues related to the environment and occupational injury due to chemical exposures. The conference will offer her a greater understanding of the links between the environment and breast cancer due to specific risk factors.
She is currently working on her community-based Master’s project in the area of air pollution and its effect on asthma visits. She will disseminate educational materials to children and parents on the adverse effects of exposure to particulates and ways to diminish triggers in the home. She also hopes to become an advocate for women’s environmental health.
Amanda Horton, Medical Student
Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
As a first-year medical student, Amanda has a unique interest in fertility and women’s reproductive health and the environment. She is an active member of the Students Interested in Obstetrics and Gynecology Interest Group and serves as the AMSA co-chair of the Environmental Health Action Committee.
Amanda will use what she learns at the conference with patients to provide a more comprehensive treatment approach. She will introduce the conference information at patient-education programs which she helps to plan and run. These events include educational health fairs at community centers, as well as lectures at local North Philadelphia high schools. As co-chair of the Environmental Health Action Committee for Temple’s American Medical Student Association (AMSA) chapter, she will organize health education events that specifically pertain to how the environment affects health.
Megan Johnson, Research Assistant
Temple University, Department of Public Health, Philadelphia, PA
Megan is an undergraduate student at Temple University where she studies public health. She recognizes that avoiding exposures is not enough to protect women’s health.
Megan will use the experience of the conference to update the resources on environmental health at the Public Health Department’s resource room geared for teachers in public schools and offer help with designing lessons for their students. She will incorporate environmental health issues, such as air, food and water quality into the library and provide the school district in Philadelphia with suggestions for the improvement of the students’ health.
Sandra A. Keen, Owner/Manager
Rejuvenee Esthetic Day Spa, New Jersey
Sandra’s hometown dealt with contamination issues and health impacts of neighbors that engaged her activism. She volunteers with various initiatives with her local school district, her Township Open Space Committee, and as a member of the South Jersey Land & Water Trust Committee.
Sandra will use this experience to increase her role in educating her community and advocate on their behalf through programs in schools and the community center in her town. She will tap into the resources offered in Gloucester County as well as use her own business to circulate information relating to health & the environment.
Rev. Marraine C. Kettell, Associate Pastor
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Emmaus, PA
Marraine believes that religious institutions are called to be stewards to the earth as well as health, education, direct action, and justice issues. Having completed a social justice project on the after-effects of hurricane Katrina, she appreciates the many pre-existing issues of environmental abuse.
Marraine will use the information from the conference to work with the Christian Education Programs, the Youth Fellowship Programs and develop a Women’s ministry group in addition to typical pastoral responsibilities. Because women are directly affected by environmental health issues, she hopes to engage them in social action and empower women and girls to advocate for policy change with grassroots movements from churches to community and corporate leadership.
Fanta Waterman, Graduate Student and Instructor
Public Health, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
Fanta’s interest in Environmental Health led her to pursue a Master's degree in Public Health. She is also an instructor of the undergraduate Environmental Health course and co-instructor of the Introductory Public Health courses at Temple University's College of Health Professions. She has previously worked on a primary prevention lead poisoning program that empowered women with education on how to keep their child healthy and free of lead.
She will use the conference to provide up-to-date science to her students to empower them through education, and encourage them to approach environmental health more critically as it pertains to women’s health. She hopes that the knowledge gained will help her develop interventions to make connections between health and the environment more apparent, empowering women to demand (and accept) more preventive action.
Alice Wright, Southeast Environmental Advocate
PA Department of Environmental Protection, Norristown, PA
Alice ensures that communities in the Southeastern PA region are informed, offers them an opportunity to participate and voice their opinions at public meetings, and acts as a liaison between communities, the government and regulated and permitted industries which may pollute the local environment.
In her role to educate various communities, the information gained will enhance her efforts to effectively share the impacts of environmental exposures with people at church groups, senior and youth organizations, CDCs, and at other meetings throughout Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery counties and Philadelphia.
