Students

Early-Career Scholars Begin Professional Development Fellowship at SPH

The Department of Environmental Health, with support from BU’s Emerging Scholars Program, are hosting four early-career scholars from historically underrepresented or marginalized groups, including race and ethnicity and other social categorizations and identities, such as disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity for a year-long fellowship focused on networking, professional development, and mentorship. The scholars, who hail from outside institutions, recently visited campus to celebrate the launch of the program.

The Department of Environmental Health recently welcomed four promising early-career scholars from historically underrepresented or marginalized groups, including race and ethnicity and other social categorizations and identities, such as disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity to participate in a year-long fellowship as part of a university-wide initiative to promote inclusivity in academia and engage diverse talent across the country.

With financial support from the BU Diversity & Inclusion Emerging Scholars Program (ESP), which each year offers 50 percent cost-sharing to select schools and departments seeking to host external scholars, the Environmental Health (EH) ESP will leverage the EH department’s robust expertise, internal resources, and connections to offer professional development, mentorship, and networking opportunities to talented, terminal degree candidates and budding researchers.

The 2024-2025 cohort, emerging scholars in the transdisciplinary fields of geospatial health and the health impacts of a changing climate, includes: Rietta Wagoner, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Arizona where she earned her PhD in environmental health sciences; Rachit Sharma, a physician, environmental epidemiologist, and doctoral student in environmental and occupational health at Drexel University; Laura Cabrera-Rivera, an environmental health researcher and doctor of public health candidate at the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus; and Eric Brown Jr, a research associate at UNC Gillings School of Public Health where he earned his PhD in environmental sciences and engineering. They were selected from among dozens of highly competitive applications the department received for the EH ESP.

“The [program] exemplifies two principles we embody in the [EH] department,” explains Kipruto Kirwa, an assistant professor of environmental health and the director of this year’s EH ESP. “First, that we at BU are a good destination for prospective public health students interested in a diverse and equitable environment—we care about this stuff. But also, that we think public health and environmental health research, policy, and practice will be well-served by promotion of representation and inclusion in the real-world.”

Kirwa and his colleagues celebrated the launch of the program on October 8–10, hosting an in-person campus visit for the scholars. On their arrival, Wagoner, Sharma, Cabrera-Rivera, and Brown became acquainted with one another, Kirwa, and the other members of the EH ESP planning committee over a welcome dinner. During the EH department’s annual retreat the following day, they mingled with other department members and guests from across SPH, presenting posters on their latest research. They also headlined a panel discussion on challenges at the nexus of academic public health, equity and diversity in the United States, and forging concrete solutions for ensuring continued progress. There was also time set aside for individual and group meetings with the scholars’ EH faculty and staff mentors, including a session with staff from the Center for Climate and Health.

“I applied to the Emerging Scholars Program because it felt like more than just a check-the-box approach to diversity—it’s about truly fostering inclusion and creating a space where scholars from different backgrounds can genuinely thrive,” says Sharma, who studied medicine in India before earning his MPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“What really drew me in was the chance to be part of a community where my experiences and perspectives would be valued, not as tokenism, but as an important contribution to the larger conversation around environmental health. I’m excited to share my work on climate-health equity, but I’m just as eager to learn from others in the program and build lasting connections. It feels like a space where we can all grow together and make a real impact,” he says. After completing his PhD, Sharma hopes to secure a postdoctoral position and ultimately, a faculty role where he can foster national and international collaborations to advance the global climate-health equity agenda.

Through periodic virtual events, such as departmental seminars and career development workshops, Sharma and his peers will have the opportunity to promote their research within and beyond the BU community, says Katherine Moon, an assistant professor of environmental health and member of the EH ESP planning committee. In the spring, the scholars will co-lead sessions during the second annual BUSPH-HSPH CAFÉ Climate and Health Conference. The calendar is not set in stone, she says, but rather, will be built based on input from the scholars about what their respective career development needs are.

Devdhar Joshi, an MPH student studying epidemiology and biostatistics, looks forward to helping the EH department support the scholars and promote their work. As a JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) Fellow, Joshi serves as a paid consultant to the department, collaborating with faculty and staff to ensure that their curricula and activities are inclusive, accessible, identity-affirming, and representative.

“Both programs focus on addressing disparities in academia by offering mentorship, resources, and opportunities to underrepresented groups and people,” he says. “As a JEDI Fellow, I am excited to contribute by promoting equity in research and academic growth, advocating for diverse perspectives, and ensuring scholars have the tools and support needed to succeed in their fields throughout the coming year.”

Kirwa, Moon, Joshi, and the other members of the EH ESP Committee, including Elaine Bertolini, Les Boden, Casey DeMarsico Jocelyn Fimbres, Stephanie Grady, Muskaan Khemani, and Jonathan Levy all agree: inclusion benefits everyone. “[The scholars] come from backgrounds that are historically marginalized [in] academia and environmental health, but we are inviting them because they are brilliant scholars and we are excited to have them as our future colleagues,” says Moon. “It is an incredible opportunity to be able to invite scholars who we would not normally be able to interact with and it is to our field’s and community’s benefit to engage, support, and hear from these scholars.”