Dr. Sacoby Wilson’s career as a participatory action researcher began as a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he began working with the West End Revitalization Association (WERA) in Mebane, North Carolina. WERA has used a unique community-university partnership to help improve local environmental conditions and public health by increasing the scientific literacy and participation of previously unserved and underserved residents in the research process.

As a member of the WERA research team, Dr. Wilson has worked on projects to assess built environment impacts on WERA communities using a community-driven action research approach, including the lack of basic amenities (i.e., sewer and water infrastructure) in historically underserved low-income neighborhoods of color, examined fecal contamination of well water and surface waters and quality of drinking water supplied by the city of Mebane in WERA neighborhoods, and explored racial/ethnic disparities in environmental exposure and health outcomes in WERA neighborhoods.

Dr. Wilson and WERA President Omega Wilson have conducted numerous trainings and workshops on the Community-Owned and Managed (COMR) Model and on the Collaborative Problem-Solving Model, which was built on the COMR framework. They have presented at the American Public Health Association annual conference and at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Minority Health Conference.

Recently the University of South Carolina and WERA, with Dr. Wilson and Mr. Wilson as PIs, received a grant from the National Institutes for Health to explore the unique community-university partnership developed by WERA. The research seeks to address critical gaps in the scientific knowledge on the effectiveness of community-university partnerships in empowering vulnerable communities such as environmental justice (EJ) communities to use science to address local public health issues. This research will assess the value of a long-term community-university partnership that can contribute its lessons learned and best practices to support the long-term objectives of the NIH Public Trust Initiative.

Research Partner:

West End Revitalization Association (WERA)

Current Extramural Funding:

Title:  Assessment of a Novel Environmental Justice Community-University Partnership
Sponsor:   National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Term:   09/01/2008-8/31/2008
Grant number:  1R03ES017357-01
Principal Investigators: Sacoby M. Wilson and Omega Wilson

Related Publications:
Heaney CD, Wilson SM, Wilson OR. The West End Revitalization Association’s Community-Owned and Managed Research Model: Development, Implementation, and Action. Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education and Action, 1(4): 339-350 (2007)
Heaney CD, Wilson SM, Wilson OR.  Beyond the Manuscript: Podcast Interview Transcript.  Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education and Action, 1(4): 351-358 (2007)
Wilson S, Heaney CD, Cooper J, Wilson OR. Built environment issues in unserved and underserved African-American neighborhoods in North Carolina. Environmental Justice. 1: 63-72 (2008)
Wilson SM, Wilson OR, Heaney CD, Cooper J. Community Driven Environmental Protection: Reducing the P.A.I.N. of the Built Environment in Low-Income African-American Communities in North Carolina. Social Justice In Context 3: 41-58 (2007-2008).