Teaching Health Impact Assessment: Linking Classroom to Community

Nancy M Wells (Cornell University)
Sohyun Sarah Lee (Ernst & Young)
Nisha Botchwey (Georgia Institute of Technology)

This presentation describes two university classes teaching HIA to interdisciplinary groups of undergraduate and graduate students grounded in environmental psychology, city planning, public health, and environmental engineering. What are some strategies to introduce students to the topic of HIA? How might teaching strategies differ depending on students’ disciplines and levels? What scale and scope is appropriate and manageable for a class HIA project? We will focus on two HIA's completed by the classes: the possible health impacts of (1) New York City's L-Train shut down and (2) the North Birmingham Community Framework Plan. We will discuss the process, data collection and community engagement strategies, challenges faced, and outcomes.