| Professors in the Field |
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Timothy Downs, D.Env.
Assistant Professor of Environmental Science & Policy
Phone: (508) 421-3814
Email: tdowns@clarku.edu |
Education
B.S., Loughborough University, UK, 1984
M.S., University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, 1990
D.Env., University of California, Los Angeles, 1998
Research Interests
public health imperatives and poverty, environmental justice, risk analysis, vulnerability assessment, impacts assessment, watershed stewardship, water supply and sanitation, sustainable development and capacity building, Latin American region and transitional countries.
Biography
Tim Downs is a specialist in environmental science and engineering. His research focus is on how humans change the environment, and how those changes impact their health and wellbeing, and natural resources. In particular, he explores how diverse social actors - especially those who are most vulnerable to problems of environmental degradation and poverty - can collaborate to build the capacity to solve public health and natural resource imperatives. He uses theories from risk analysis and vulnerability assessment to identify priority problems with stakeholders, then evaluates alternative solutions using ecological, economic, socio-political and cultural criteria. This action-research process encourages social learning and capacity building for sustainable development. In a variety of settings - New England, Mexico, East and West Africa - he works with governmental agencies, NGOs, CBOs, and corporations, applying multi-stakeholder, interdisciplinary approaches within and between multiple sectors. Core themes woven through his work are participatory analysis, planning, implementation and monitoring; the integration of indigenous and exogenous knowledge; and the adaptation of science/technology/policy tools to developing and transitional country contexts. Downs has over 20 years of technical experience in designing and managing collaborative projects in the UK, the United States, and Mexico.
Research Projects
Tim Downs and colleagues are partners with UMass Medical School on the Phase 1 (2008-2012) National Children's Study (NCS) project for Worcester County, funded by the National Institutes of Health. The project will follow 1000 children from pre-birth to age 21. It's goal is to determine how environmental and genetic facors impact children's health and development. NCS is the most ambitious research program about the environment and children's health ever undertaken, encompassing 100,000 children in 100 counties nationwide.
Downs and colleagues in Kenya just received approval for follow-up funding to carry out community based malaria intervention in the Lake Victoria Region. Funding comes from the Global Environment Facility’s Assessment of Impacts and Adaptations to Climate Change/Advancing Capacity to support Climate Change Adaptation programmes (AIACC/ACCCA). The work will apply the approach from the Health Policy article (see Publications section below)..
He is also the Co-Principal Investigator for action research project “Strengthening vulnerable communities in the Worcester built environment” under the National Institute of Health's “Environmental Justice – Partnerships for Communication” grant initiative, 2004-2008.
Selected Publications
Downs T. J. “A Systematic Integrated Approach for Crafting Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development Projects.” Natural Resources Forum, 31(2007):35-50.
Downs T.J. and Larson H. "Achieving Millennium Development Goals for health: Building understanding, trust and capacity to respond." Health Policy, 83(2-3):144-161.
Ross, L. and T. Downs. “University-Community Partnerships to Promote Environmental Health and Justice in Worcester, Massachusetts.” Scholarship in Action: Applied Research and Community Change. HUD Office of University Partnerships. August 2006, 77-91.
"A Participatory Integrated Capacity-Building Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainability - Mexico and New England Watershed Case Studies," International Experiences on Sustainability, Leal Filho et al., eds. Peter Lang Publications. Chapter 12, pp. 179-205. 2002.
"Sanitation for Developing Countries" with Suffet. The Encyclopedia of Public Health, I.H. Breslow L. (ed.). Macmillan Reference, New York. 2002.
"Syntropic Ecotoxicology: A Heuristic Model for Understanding the Vulnerability of Ecological Systems to Stress" with R.H. Ambrose. J. Ecosystem Health,Vol. 7 (4). 2002.
"Sustainable Health Risk Management and the Role of Cross-disciplinary Professionals in Developing Countries: Mexican Experience." Environment, Development & Sustainability, Vol 3 (1): 60-81. 2001.
"Making Sustainable Development Operational: Capacity Building for the Water Supply and Sanitation Sector in Mexico." J. Environmental Planning and Management, 44(4): 525-544. 2001.
Please click here to read a faculty profile, "Tim Downs Bridges Science, Society and Policy."
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