# Rural Environmental Health Training Program

> **NIH NIH T32** · VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INST AND ST UNIV · 2024 · $146,232

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Environmental exposures affecting human health are traditionally associated with industrial sources in urban
environments, while exposures and associated health outcomes unique to rural landscapes have been less
emphasized in environmental health sciences training. To address this gap, the Rural Environmental Health
(REH) training program will leverage Virginia Tech’s strengths in agriculture, engineering, veterinary, and
natural resources research and outreach in rural areas to advance biomedical and public health training and
research. The REH program will provide predoctoral fellows with environmental health training in the areas of
toxicology, environmental epidemiology, exposure science, and risk assessment. Trainees will focus their
dissertation research within one of three focus areas: mechanisms of environmentally-mediated diseases
prevalent in rural areas, characterization of exposures in rural landscapes, or community-engaged approaches
to address environmental health priorities in rural areas. A total of six REH trainees will be recruited over the 5-
year funding period from participating PhD degree granting programs at Virginia Tech including: 1)
Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health, 2) Biomedical and Veterinary Sciences, 3) Environmental and
Water Resources Engineering, 4) Biological Systems Engineering, 5) Fish and Wildlife Conservation, and 6)
Biological Sciences. Over their 4 years of training, they will participate in formal coursework in environmental
health sciences, including toxicology, epidemiology, and exposure science, to gain depth in methodological
skills. REH trainees will gain team science and science communication skills, experience working at the
science-policy interface, and receive career planning guidance through participation in the Interfaces of Global
Change (IGC) Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Program. The IGC will expose them to the wide range of
global change research on interacting health threats from climate change and pollution in rural environments.
REH trainees’ will participate in a journal club led by REH leadership to build camaraderie, learn from each
other, and keep abreast of the relevant literature on rural environmental health. The REH program is supported
by a leadership team spanning four colleges (Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, Engineering, and Natural
Resources) and an additional 22 faculty mentors with cutting-edge interdisciplinary research programs funded
through grants from NIH and other federal agencies including NSF, USDA, and NASA. As a new program, the
leadership team has developed a mentoring and evaluation plan that includes multiple methods of independent
feedback from trainees, faculty mentors, and an external advisory board made up of directors of long-standing
NIEHS-funded training programs to guide progress and ensure the continued growth and success of the REH
trainees.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10867291
- **Project number:** 5T32ES033959-02
- **Recipient organization:** VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INST AND ST UNIV
- **Principal Investigator:** Julia M Gohlke
- **Activity code:** T32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $146,232
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-07-01 → 2028-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10867291

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10867291, Rural Environmental Health Training Program (5T32ES033959-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10867291. Licensed CC0.

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