Courtney Woods is an associate professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering. Dr. Woods serves a lead for the Master of Public Health (MPH) program’s Environmental Health Solutions concentration and co-lead for the Health Equity, Social Justice and Human Rights concentration, which she helped develop.
For over a decade, Dr. Woods has applied participatory action research approaches to support communities experiencing environmental racism. As an engineering and toxicology trained scientist, she uses mixed methods to assess risk perception and hazard exposure for a range of environmental health issues, including landfills, petrochemical refineries, industrial animal agriculture facilities and natural disasters. She leads the Environmental Justice Action Research Clinic. Similar to a law clinic, the EJ Clinic provides technical assistance for residents facing urgent environmental health threats.