Biography

Collaborative community-university activities are fully integrated into both her teaching and research work. The activities build on a strong partnership developed with several local organizations and boards of health. Relevant to teaching, courses in community health and environment, health promotion, and contemporary health problems, for example, are all designed with a strong service-learning component in which students work (in groups of 3-4) with a local community-based organization and/or a local board of health to address the organizations’ need and to create products that are useful to them and could be used to further their efforts. For example, in the health promotion course, service-learning video production projects are implement such that the students work with their respective CBO collaboratively to produce 5-minute videos about a local public health concern deemed as critical by the CBO. The videos are then used by the organization for outreach, education, and advocacy as appropriate. In another class, students learn how to use and apply Geographic Information Systems (GIS) on a contemporary health issue by working on specific projects needed by the local boards of health to address environmental and public health needs. In addition, Dr. Tajik has ongoing community-based participatory research activities with local organizations addressing urban and suburban environmental health needs around confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), toxic waste sites, sustainable agriculture, and exposure assessment among other. Other research includes evaluation of engaged education and media literacy skills.