The National Council on Diversity in Environmental Health (NCODE Health), still in its formative stage as a national organization, actually has three years of significant experience in diversity recruitment and retention. A collaborative effort between Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) brought together a truly diverse group of environmental health scientists representing multiple federal, state, and local government organizations, academia and industry, and formed the National Environmental Health Diversity Recruitment Task Force (NEHDRTF).
The NEHDRTF’s mission was to develop and implement a diversity recruitment and retention model that could achieve racial and ethnic diversity among environmental health students and faculty, and eventually the environmental health workforce. The model was developed and piloted at Eastern Kentucky University from 2003 through 2006 with tremendous success.
The model encompasses key factors, or “best practices,” that include:
• Leadership/management commitment
• Nexus concept (partnerships)
• Broad organizational strategic planning for diversity
• Program goals that include targeted recruitment populations
• Program goals that include recruiting diverse faculty
• Development of curriculum that encourages diversity
• Creation of an advisory diversity council of local practitioners
• Creation of an active student environmental health association
• Embracing a “Students are "our customers" policy
• Encouragement of parental involvement
• Recruitment as a “way of life”
The immediate positive results in the EKU pilot included higher numbers of diverse students enrolling in environmental health classes and declaring environmental health as their majors. By November 2004 the NEHDRTF realized that to disseminate the important lessons learned in this unique recruitment model nationally, and to be able to provide other organizations with assistance, an independent national organization was necessary. By November 2005 a strategic plan for organizational development was initiated and the National Council on Diversity in Environmental Health came into existence.
NCODE Health’s platform and beliefs are as follows:
• Diversity fosters stronger Environmental Public Health leadership
• Dedication to improving the field of Environmental Public Health.
• Diversity is critical to the future of Environmental Public Health, Public Health as a whole, and the economic health of the nation.
• Diverse student bodies and faculties must be created in educational institutions to produce a diverse workforce.
• A diverse workforce in Environmental Public Health is essential to bring “emerging professionals” into the field.
• Effectiveness in resolving Environmental Public Health concerns in a community is related to the degree to which the environmental public health workforce is representative of the population it serves.
• Solutions and innovations to enhance diversity must be incorporated in all sectors of the environmental public health workforce within local, State and Federal programs, academia and industry.
Diverse student bodies and faculties are crucial to the provision of truly comprehensive environmental public health education and the development of a diverse environmental public health workforce with informed leadership. Increasing diversity in the Environmental Public Health workforce, and especially in the leadership, is a critically important step towards achieving greater competency in the resolution of the disproportionately high number of environmental public health problems faced by our nation’s diverse communities.
Currently, NCODE Health is seeking and contacting potential partnering organizations. It has initiated such efforts in the Atlanta, Georgia area, including Georgia State University’s Institute of Public Health, Spelman College, and various federal and local/county agencies. Individuals and organizations interested in NCODE Health and its initiatives should contact Dr. Welford Roberts.