TOSC/TAB Welcome New Associate

The Western Region TOSC and TAB programs are pleased to announce that Sonal Shetty has joined our staff as the Technical Assistance Specialist with TOSC.

Sonal joined the Center in November 2003 as a Masters student in the Health Policy and Management track in OSU's Department of Public Health. Sonal comes to us with expertise in researching human health related information in technical documents, especially the human health hazards of pesticides. She has also worked in India organizing health education seminars, improved health behavior training sessions and free treatment camps for impoverished community members. She has a Bachelor’s degree in dentistry from India and has lived in Corvallis since she moved to the United States three years ago. Her areas of interest are health policy and environmental justice.

Sonal’s responsibilities at the Western Center will be to provide technical assistance and information to communities and other entities interested in TOSC assistance. You can reach Sonal at shetty@engr.orst.edu or 541-737-9432

Public Health Fellow visits TOSC/TAB

At the end of October, the Western Region TOSC /TAB office at Oregon State University hosted a visit from Errol Mazursky, a Public Health Fellow working with the EPA and the National Center for Environmental Research (NCER). His fellowship is sponsored by the Associated Schools of Public Health.

Errol is conducting a series of case studies of 6-8 HSRC university/community partnerships to examine the social networks, social capital and other key variables that modify the effectiveness of the partnerships in pursuing research or decision making goals. These case studies could aid the NCER and their federal funding partners in structuring future approaches to community-participatory projects and provide a basis for considering citizen advocacy groups as stake-holders in NCER activities.

Based on any patterns Errol finds in doing the case studies, a model may be designed that identifies the social variables which promote the highest or lowest success in sustainable university/community partnerships.

After reviewing the files of several closed communities (those that are finished working with TOSC/TAB) Errol came up with a list of questions for the TOSC/TAB staff. From this process he formulated recommendations for increasing our effectiveness.

One of those recommendations was an annual review of our work with communities. We have incorporated that suggestion and are preparing letters to our active communities. The letters outline the activities of the past year and seek input from our community partners so that we may adjust our assistance, if necessary. These adjustments will hopefully increase the value and improve the focus of the technical assistance we provide.