Academic and Training Program Hub

The HRC-Graduate Certificate is the little sister of the HRC-Master's program (HRC-MA). The HRC-GC is geared towards working professionals and current MSU graduate students, preparing them to harness the power of communication to promote positive public health outcomes: Students learn to craft effective health messages, prepare professional health communication and marketing materials, and design, implement, and evaluate public communication campaigns.Whether you have an interest in research or practice, you will gain a broad understanding of health and risk communication strategies and their role for public health. You will practice creating effective programs and interventions and learn how to design, conduct and critique relevant research. This program will provide you with the prerequisite to effectively inform, influence, and persuade people to live happier, healthier lives.

The Health and Risk Communication Center (HRCC) supports the work of over 50 affiliate faculty members who study the role of communication in health behavior change and risk reduction.The HRCC serves as a hub for interdisciplinary research connections, provides methodological resources (such as surveys, focus groups, message production and statistical analysis), and serves as a go-to for specialized knowledge and expertise on all aspects of the health and environment risk process.The HRCC has worked with professionals outside the college, advising medical organizations, local and state government, and NGOs on a variety of health and risk related issues.

The MSU Climate Change Research Support Program supports research and scholarship that is leading-edge, interdisciplinary, and capitalizes on the existing intellectual and research resources at MSU and with collaborators around the world. A primary goal of the program is to develop and promote projects and programs that take advantages of our areas of excellence and create unique approaches to climate change that differentiate us from other institutions. The program be a key element of the OR&I support of the MSU 2030 Strategic Plan which envisions a university that fully embraces diversity, equity, and inclusion and engaged in transdisciplinary solutions to ecological and human problems affected by social, climate, and environmental changes. This challenge demands a global, transdisciplinary response and aligns squarely with MSU’s land grant history, identity, and aspirations.

CGCEO is a group of MSU scientists from multiple fields who conduct collaborative research, at multiple scales, that relies on geospatial technologies, earth observation, data analytics, modeling, on-the-ground field research, coupled human and natural system interactions, and socioeconomic and policy analyses. Through research, training of students and early-career scientists, and outreach to stakeholders, we seek to equip society with the technical tools and the physical, socioeconomic, and ecological knowledge to maintain sustainable ecosystems and societies. The work of CGCEO is facilitated by our shared space and staff resources, and regular interactions through meetings, seminars, and collaborative research, and educational activities.

The Global Resilience Institute (GRI) is an interdisciplinary institute committed to developing and deploying practical and innovative tools, applications, and skills that strengthen the resilience of individuals, communities, infrastructure, systems, networks, and societies.Climate change, urbanization, and social tensions have damaged communities, constrained resources, forced migrations, and caused cascading failures around the world. Cities and their rural hinterlands across the world are struggling to retain livelihoods, lifelines, health, infrastructures, ecosystems, and economies in a sustainable manner. Resilience in this context refers to the ability to reduce fragility during and recover effectively after extremes or stresses, while also investing in preparedness and mitigation, in a way that preserves lives and assets while ensuring continued progress and prosperity. From building back better and designing financial incentives to developing nature-inspired systems and equitable social capital, resilience strategies need to be multifaceted and interdisciplinary.Northeastern University has responded to these threats by investing in global resilience over the last several years. GRI continues to lead new and important convergence research across colleges and disciplines.

The Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute (SSEHRI) fosters interdisciplinary collaboration between life and social scientists, offering comprehensive doctoral training in environmental sociology. It expands environmental monitoring efforts, innovating in data reporting and developing low-cost tools for community-based monitoring. SSEHRI serves as a campus-wide resource for environmental health, facilitating research partnerships and internships with environmental health communities, aiming to enhance understanding and action in this critical field.

The U.S. criminal justice (CJ) system is unprepared to address the challenges of climate change and environmental degradation. Very few CJ agencies recognize or have taken any action to remedy the many ways these crises intersect and harm public safety, public health, equity, and the occupational health and safety of their personnel.The Action Lab’s new Climate and Public Safety (CAPS) initiative was created to help fill the void. This seed-stage venture has conducted preliminary mapping of the intersections and is developing a resource bank and infosheets to share as a knowledge hub. We envision building a collaborative community of practice featuring CJ leaders and personnel, policymakers, scholars, community stakeholders, and advocates. Together, we hope to:- Translate and disseminate the existing research base,- Conduct landscape assessments and gather lessons learned from practitioners and communities nationwide,- Facilitate creating a research agenda and conducting original research, and- Build a menu of shovel-ready mitigation and adaptation strategies and implementation toolkits and training for CJ leaders and personnel, policymakers, advocates, and community members can employ to help personnel and communities thrive in the coming years.

The mission of the Center for Environmental Health Sciences (CEHS) is to study the biological effect of environmental agents, individually and in combination, with specific emphasis on how such exposures affect human health and the health of our ecosystem. Such studies help us understand and predict how exposure to environmental agents affects human health and the dynamic relationship we have with other living things. Three fundamental components influence the physiological effects of environmental exposures: the nature of the exposure, the duration of that exposure, and how well the exposed organism is equipped to deal with the exposure—i.e., the organism’s genetic susceptibility.