Megan Weil Latshaw, Associate Teaching Professor in the Department Environmental Health and Engineering will present “Transportation and Environmental Health” as part of the CaSE seminar series.
Abstract
Transportation provides access to education, jobs, health care, and healthy food. However, those who need these things the most are the least likely to have access to reliable transportation. Some communities make public transit the easy choice; not only does that mean better access to education, jobs and more, but it also means lower levels of traffic, pollution, and greenhouse gases. Research also shows that taking public transit typically involves walking or biking to transit stations. Communities can also be designed to encourage these alternative forms of transit. All of these things—education, jobs, healthy food, pollution, greenhouse gases, and physical activity—impact our health. Modeling can help urban planners incorporate such complexities into the decision-making process.
Bio
Megan Weil Latshaw, PhD, is the Director of the Master’s Degree Programs in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. She serves the Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health as co-Director for Education and on the Steering Committee for the Environmental Challenges focus area of the Bloomberg American Health Initiative. Recently, she co-lead JHU’s Sustainability Plan Steering Committee. Her work focuses on designing healthy communities, connecting environmental health research with the real world, and improving environmental health surveillance (all through a justice and equity lens).