College of Social Work Assistant Professor Jen First, PhD, along with Kelsey Ellis, PhD, MS; Associate Professor, Department of Geography, and Kristina Kintziger, PhD, MPH; Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health, recently received a $42,955 SEED grant from the Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment (ISSE).
The grant titled “Beat the heat: Building adaptive capacity of vulnerable populations in Knox County to combined stressors from climate change and urban heat” will apply a systematic approach to characterize the impact of heat on the human-environment systems in Knox County, Tennessee, with a particular focus on identifying high-risk populations such as elderly adults, low-income people, and those experiencing homelessness, and will additionally develop a Heat Task Force of Knox County stakeholders to identify community-based adaptation strategies to improve outcomes for these vulnerable populations.
For more information about ISSE, go to https://isse.utk.edu/