Title: Built Environment Institute
Author:
Section/SPIG: Environment
Issue Date:
The Built Environment Institute Considers an Expanded Role
Since 2002, the Built Environment Institute (BEI) has been in a process of rapid development. It was launched at the APHA 131st Annual Meeting held in San Francisco, Nov. 15 – 19, 2003 (BEI I). Four oral scientific sessions, one roundtable session, and a best practices field trip were offered. Twenty-five speakers participated.
The BEI was again offered at this past year’s APHA 132nd Annual Meeting held in Washington, D.C., Nov. 7 – 10, 2004 (BEI II). Five oral scientific sessions, two roundtable sessions, three poster sessions, a co-sponsored best practices field trip, and the first meeting of the BEI FORUM were offered. More than sixty speakers presented papers over the course of BEI’s four-day program, and nearly 30 invited distinguished guests attended the BEI FORUM. (Editor’s Note: An article about the BEI II field trip to the Anacostia River waterfront and its surrounding neighborhoods appeared in the December 2004 / January 2005 issue of the APHA newspaper, The Nation’s Health, page 26.)
The BEI FORUM, which has received in-kind support from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), offered members the opportunity to meet, evaluate, and advance identified multidisciplinary strategic initiatives in addition to addressing BEI development issues. The BEI FORUM produced a number of recommendations for BEI development, which include advocacy, training, partnership development, project facilitation, agenda setting, pilot program development, and to continue in its role as meeting convener.
The BEI FORUM has been conceived as a venue through which many of the activities of the BEI are developed. The BEI FORUM will continue to provide a “think tank” environment to pursue core objectives, including building and supporting strategic partnerships among federal and non-federal agencies and a broad range of stakeholders that address research and action agendas characterizing the human health consequences of the built environment at multiple geographic levels.
Because of BEI’s growth and the demand for it to pursue a more expanded role, Environment Section leadership is evaluating the structure and activities of the BEI within the Section and its role within APHA. One outcome of this process is to offer the BEI as part of the APHA pre-meeting Continuing Education Institute (CEI) at this year’s APHA 133rd Annual Meeting to be held in New Orleans, Nov. 5-9, 2005 (BEI III). The CEI format will allow BEI III to offer a more symposium-like program and increase its ability to address many of the recommendations being considered by Section Leadership and those proposed by the BEI FORUM. BEI III will also offer three oral scientific sessions in the general meeting as part of the Section’s Annual Meeting program.
Funding for BEI is provided by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the United States Environmental Protection Agency; RWJF also provides in-kind support. The BEI is also grateful for administrative support provided by the APHA.