USC Environmental Health Center News – Andrea Hricko retiring, Jill Johnston taking reins of Outreach Program + Ed Avol port tour and student photo blog

Photo taken during Port of LA and Long Beach tour by Sharon Zhang. Visit her photo blog to see more!
News about MFN member USC Environmental Health Centers and friends of the MFN Andrea Hricko and Ed Avol was received by email this morning.

Happy retirement Andrea and congratulations Jill Johnston!

Check out the photo blog linked in the second article below for more photos taken during Ed’s port tour by Sharon Zhang, student in the USC Environmental Health Program.


Posted on: Saturday 19 December 2015 — 00:40

New faculty member Jill Johnston, PhD, has joined the Environmental Health Centers and will direct the Outreach program starting in the New Year.  Dr. Johnston brings extensive community experience and research skills.  Broadly, her research focuses on addressing unequal exposures to harmful contaminants that affect the health of working poor and communities of color.  Dr. Johnston worked as a community organizer on issues of environmental and economic justice in South Texas since 2003.  Most recently, she worked at the Gillings School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with Dr. Steve Wing to examine disparities in exposure to industrial animal operations.  She will continue to collaborative with grassroots organizations to conduct community-engaged action-oriented research at USC to support environmental justice. 

Current outreach director Andrea Hricko will be retiring from USC, but will continue to work on several projects and provide valuable guidance for the outreach program. 

We welcome Dr. Johnston, and know she will make excellent contributions to this work.   


Posted on: Friday 18 December 2015 — 00:46
USC Environmental Health Professor Ed Avol provides his undergraduate students with a variety of opportunities to learn more about environmental impacts in communities in and around Los Angeles. This past semester, Avol arranged an optional tour of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach for interested students. Guided by several port activists, students were shown how cargo-related activities in and around the ports have impacted frontline communities for decades.

“Hearing about the port communities in class was one thing, but seeing them first hand was completely different. To be at the ports and understand the extent of the problems they face was an eye opening experience,” commented student Sharon Zhang. Zhang, who maintains a personal photo blog, documented her experience on the tour. Click here to see her collection of photos that document the tour experience.

“Here’s a neighborhood across from port storage about a mile and a half from the actual ports, where diesel trucks funnel in and out every single day, 24/7 on the narrow two lane road that separates the residents from the giant storage boxes. Because of the disparity in our imports and exports, these shipping containers are actually empty, waiting to be sent out.” -Sharon Zhang


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