Community Outreach and Education

      The COEC maintains two-way links between environmental health research and the information needs of the community. My primary focus is addressing environmental health information and policy needs of the communities in and around Rochester. I participate in many local partnerships relating to environmental health including the Coalition to Prevent Lead Poisoning, the Rochester Healthy Homes Partnership, the Water Education Collaborative and the Center for Environmental Information.

      Childhood lead poisoning remains one of the most significant childhood environmental health risk in the Rochester area. I have been an active member of the Coalition to Prevent Lead Poisoning since 2001, serving on its Governmental Relations Subcommittee and Executive Committee. I focus on translating environmental health information into relevant policy at the local, state, and federal levels.

      Building on community partnerships established through the Coalition to Prevent Lead Poisoning, I have worked with several community groups to develop education and outreach programs related to healthy homes.

      We have also initiated outreach programs related to other EHSC research programs and in response to community needs, including risks from consuming Lake Ontario fish, concerns about air quality, the environmental contributors to obesity, hydrofracking, and groundwater contamination.

      As a policy scientist, most of my research has addressed on the role of science in the policy process. I focus on the role of community groups in the policy process, and particularly on how these groups generate, access, and use information.

Selected Publications

Korfmacher, K.S. and V. George. 2012. Educating refugees to improve their home environmental health. Forthcoming in Public Health Management and Practice.

Korfmacher, K.S., M. Ayoob, and R.L. Morley. 2012. Rochester’s lead law: Evaluation of an environmental health policy innovation. Environmental Health Perspectives. 120(2):309-315.

Eisenberg K. W., van Wijngaarden E., Fisher, S. G., Korfmacher, K. S., Campbell, J. R., Fernandez, I. D., Cochran, J., and Geltman, P. L. 2011. Blood lead levels of refugee children resettled in Massachusetts, 2000 to 2007. Am J Public Health.Jan;101(1):48-54.

Korfmacher, K. S. 2010. Boundary networks and Rochester's “smart” lead law: the use of multidisciplinary information in a collaborative policy process. New Solut. 20(3):317-336.

Korfmacher, K. S., and Kuholski K. 2008. Rochester’s Healthy Home: A community-based innovation to promote environmental health action. Environ Pract. Sep 16;10(3):94-106.

Korfmacher, K. S. 2008. Collaborating for primary prevention: Rochester’s new lead law. J Public Health Manag Pract. Jul-Aug;14(4):400-406.

Korfmacher, K. S., and Kuholski, K. 2007. Do the same houses poison many children? An investigation of lead poisoning in Rochester, New York, 1993-2004. Public Health Rep. Jul-Aug;122(4):482-487.

Korfmacher, K. S., and Dixon S. 2007. Reliability of spot test kits for detecting lead in household dust. Environ Res. 2007 Jun;104(2):241-249.

Trasande L, Boscarino J, Graber N, Falk R, Schechter C, Galvez M, Dunkel G, Geslani J, Moline J, Kaplan-Liss E, Miller RK, Korfmacher K, Carpenter D, Forman J, Balk SJ, Laraque D, Frumkin H, and Landrigan P. 2006. The environment in pediatric practice: a study of New York pediatricians' attitudes, beliefs, and practices towards children’s environmental health. J Urban Health. Jul;83(4):760-772.

Koontz, T. M., Steelman, T. A., Carmin, J., Korfmacher, K. S., Moseley, C., and Thomas, C. W. 2004. Collaborative environmental management: What roles for government? RFF Press, Washington, DC.

Korfmacher, K. S. and Koontz, T. M. 2004. Collaboration, information, and preservation: Expertise and citizen farmland preservation task forces. Policy Sciences 36(3):213-236.

Korfmacher, K. S. 2001. The politics of participation in watershed modeling. Environmental Management. Feb;27(2):161-176.

Korfmacher, K. S. 2000. What’s the Point of Partnering? A Case Study of Ecosystem Management in the Darby Creek Watershed. American Behavioral Scientist, 44(4):548-564.