Community Outreach and Education

      As Community Outreach Coordinator, my goal is to strengthen links between environmental health research and the information needs of the community. My primary focus is addressing environmental health questions of the communities in and around Rochester. I participate in a number of local groups relating to environmental health including the Water Education Collaborative, the Monroe County Environmental Health Advisory Committee, and the Center for Environmental Information.

Healthy Homes

     Childhood lead poisoning is 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 am particularly interested in helping the Coalition translate environmental health information into its goals of improving relevant policy at the local, state, and federal levels. Specific projects have included developing a support group for families of lead poisoned children, working closely with the Monroe County Health Department’s lead poisoning prevention program, seeking funding to increase the Rochester Lead Free Coalition’s capacity, and calculating the current costs to society of childhood lead poisoning.

Building on community parternships established through the Coalition to Prevent Lead Poisoning, I have worked with several community groups in SouthWest Rochester to establish a model Healthy Home. The Healthy Home is a hands-on facility that teaches residents, property managers, and professionals how to reduce home-based environmental hazards in a low-income residential setting. The Healthy Home opened to the public in June 2006 and had 740 visitors in its first year of operation.

     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 collaborative groups in the policy process, and particularly on how these groups generate, access, and use information. Before becoming the EHSC’s Community Outreach Coordinator in Fall 2002, most of my research addressed these questions in the context of coastal policy, watershed management, and farmland preservation.

Selected Publications

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 KS, 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.