Transprofessional Environmental Wellness: GRoWES – Global Research on WaSH (water, sanitation and hygiene) to Eliminate childhood Stunting

Kappe Lecture – Dan Oerther, Professor of Environmental Health Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology.

Registration required.

Professor Daniel B. Oerther (pronounced O’ thur) is renowned for interprofessional education and community-based participatory research improving access to clean water and nutritious food worldwide. Dan joined the Missouri University of Science and Technology in 2010 as the John A. and Susan Mathes Endowed Chair of Civil Engineering after ten years on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati. He is an adjunct professor at the Institute of Science and Technology for Advanced Studies and Research (India), Manipal Academy of Higher Education (India), University of Western Para (Brazil), Future University (Egypt), and King’s College London (United Kingdom).

In the U.K., Dr. Oerther is a Chartered Engineer, a Chartered Environmentalist, and a Fellow of four learned societies. In the U.S., he was the first individual to be Board Certified by AAEES both as an Engineer (BCEE) as well as a Scientist (BCES), and he is a Diplomat of the American Academy of Sanitarians. For his advancement of nursing and global healthcare, Professor Oerther was elected a Lifetime Honorary Member of Sigma Theta Tau the International Honor Society of Nursing, a Lifetime Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, and a Lifetime Honorary Fellow of the Academy of Nursing Education. Dan is the first engineer to be recognized by all three of these learned societies of nursing.

Professor Oerther’s service to the profession includes membership on the boards of directors of AEESP, AAEES and CIEH; editorial duties for Perspectives in Public Health RSPH, Water Environment Research and the Journal of Environmental Engineering ASCE; and serving as the Senior Agricultural Policy Advisor for the U.S. Secretary of State.

Lecture summary:

UNICEF estimates that one-quarter of all children less than five years of age are stunted, globally. Linear growth retardation and stunting – defined as height that is more than two standard deviations below the WHO child growth standards median – correlate to short-, medium- and long-term outcomes including a poverty trap where short-of-stature adults with diminished cognitive and physical development are unable to provide for improved economic conditions for their children. Stunting is closely linked to inadequate nutrition during the first 1,000-days of a child’s life, which is defined as the time from when a mother learns she is pregnant until the second birthday of her child. Solutions to stunting include antenatal nutrition, perinatal healthcare, maternal hydration supporting exclusive breastfeeding for at least six months after birth and access to clean water and safe food through age five years old.

GRoWES – Global Research on WaSH (water, sanitation and hygiene) to Eliminate childhood Stunting – aims to achieve four goals, namely:

1. improving our basic understanding of the relationship between stunting and WaSH;
2. eliminating stunting at pilot sites through targeted interventions;
3. replicating and scaling-up sustainable solutions to stunting; and
4. influencing global policy on nutrition (i.e., through the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition 2016-2025).

As a case study of research, education, practice and policy in the emerging field of transprofessional environmental wellness, the audience will learn how the ambitious goals of GRoWES are accomplished through convergence – where deep integration across disciplines – including nursing, engineering, and public policy – is used to solve a pressing societal need – in this case, childhood stunting.