Community Health & Sustainability

The concepts of program planning, development, budgeting and evaluation, which are essential functions for individuals working in health care agencies, are presented. Starting with the mission of the organization, the steps of conceptualizing, designing, implementing, budgeting and evaluating health programs are covered. Students will be expected to develop a grant proposal for an agency. This course is a capstone experience and resources from all other relevant coursework will be called upon. Seniors only.

The goal for this course is to provide the student with the knowledge and skills required to design, synthesize and make materials in an environmentally benign way. Each week will be based on an environmental problem such as global warming, ozone depletion or water pollution. We will describe the fundamental science behind this problem and discuss some of the "big picture"politics surrounding it, look at real world manufacturing techniques such as coatings, technology, solvents, catalysis or non-covalent derivatization, examine industrial case-studies where green chemistry has been successfully implemented, explore the economic implications of these "real-world" cases, and delve into synthetic transformations at the molecular level. We will discuss elimination reactions, electrophilc aromatic substitutions, rearrangements and other topics in synthetic organic chemistry. We will understand the environmental and toxicological problems facing industry and society but more importantly realize that there are solutions to these problems and learn how to implement the principles of green chemistry into what we do.

In order to design materials that have reduced impact on human health and the environment [Green Chemistry], it is essential to understand the molecular mechanisms involved. This class is designed to provide an overview of toxicology from the perspective of fundamental organic chemistry. By looking at quantitative structure activity relationships of some important toxicological and environmental endpoints can be avoided.

There are many potential routes to the design and synthesis of materials that have widespread use in society. This course investigates various synthetic strategies and analyzes processes from a mechanistic perspective in order to compare alternative routes. By so doing, the student will be in a better position to assess which strategies are better with respect to the principles of Green Chemistry.

From the Green Chemistry perspective it is important to understand environmentally benign methods to control physical properties and the outcome of reactions. This course will introduce students to interfacial phenomena. Emphasis will be placed on the role of weak (noncovalent) interactions on interfaces. Examples of important implications of interfacial phenomena will include specific and nonspecific surface catalysis, stratospheric ozone depletion, cloud condensation formation of and transport through biological membranes.

When performing an experiment in the laboratory, one often follows procedures that have been published in the literature. Why do we do the things we do in the lab? How do you choose what glassware to use? How do you go about selecting a solvent? What conditions should you use? What options do you have in designing an experiment that has minimal impact on the environment? This class will discuss the process by which these decisions are made by examining "real world" case studies from industrial practices of manufacturing.

Green Chemistry is a rapidly advancing field from the perspective of technology and policy. This seminar class will provide weekly presentations from practitioners and experts in Green Chemistry.

This course is designed to develop communication skills and aspects of service learning. Students will learn and create and practice written and orals presentations designed for both technical and non-technical audiences.

The course explores the relationship between social and economic justice and public health. Focusing primarily on the U.S., the forces that either establish and exacerbate or prevent social inequities will be analyzed to understand the intricate links between social, behavioral, physical, and biological determinants of health. Several theoretical orientations will be reviewed in order to better understand how each frames research and public health strategies that have been used to address health inequalities. Students will be able to competently articulate the relationships between social and health inequalities. They will be able to explain the strengths and limitations of different theoretical orientations to these issues and frame the policy needs to positively reduce health disparities. Permission of instructor.