Paloma Beamer, PhD, Associate Professor, Environmental Health Sciences at the UA Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, will share the experiences of building community partnerships to develop and implement a time-sensitive project funded by the NIH and a community engaged project funded by the Haury Foundation.

Gold King Mine Spill:
On August 5, 2015, 3 million gallons of acid mine drainage was released from the Gold King Mine, eventually reaching the San Juan River – the lifeblood of the Navajo Nation. Many Native American communities have subsistence livelihoods and strong spiritual beliefs that are deeply connected to the natural environment. As a result, environmental contamination from catastrophic mine spills severely impacts indigenous people to the core of their spiritual and physical livelihoods and there is potential for unique exposure pathways and greater health risks. 

Dr. Beamer is an environmental engineer by training and holds joint appointments as a research scientist in the Asthma and Airway Disease Research Center. She earned her BS from the University of California Berkeley and her MS and PhD from Stanford University. Her research focuses on understanding how individuals are exposed to environmental contaminants and the health risks of these exposures with a special focus on vulnerable populations, including children, low-wage immigrant workers, Native Americans and those in the US-Mexico Border Region.

For more information, please contact Paloma Beamer @ 520- 626-0006 or email:pbeamer@email.arizona.edu