Announcing the 2025-26 Local Engagement Seed Grant Awardees

One Health Framework for School Athletic Field Design: Planning for Urban Heat Island Effects with Wake County Public School System

• PI: James Barnes (College of Design)
• Abstract: School athletic fields provide important opportunities for student health through sports and recreation. Simultaneously, they are highly modified environments where optimization for athletics, maintenance, and other factors may produce tradeoffs for principles of One Health for both students and the surrounding environment. In particular, athletic fields with their abundance of turf may contribute to the heat island effect. How might athletic fields and surrounding areas be designed from a more holistic One Health perspective beginning with their role with the heat island effect?
  
  This project partners with Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) to develop a framework for understanding this challenge. WCPSS Central Office faces pressing decisions on the renovation of athletic fields among its schools. Through this project, researchers will develop a series of design scenarios focusing on extreme heat events and the impact of material, surrounding vegetation, or spatial layout. How could the school district adapt to the heat island effect of athletic fields through material selection (e.g. natural vs artificial turf), nature-based solutions surrounding fields such as tree planting, or non-essential grass conversion? Data from a subset of WCPSS high schools will be collected through remote sensing, micro-climate modeling, and ground-truthing.
  
  Research results will inform the decisions by WCPSS. Moreover, since athletic fields are relatively standardized, researchers aim to use the research to begin developing a decision support tool for other school districts. Additionally, this research will provide a foundation for larger proposals and a comprehensive One Health framework for the multi-use spaces of school grounds.

Developing Impact Metrics for One Health Community Engaged Scholarship

• PI: Mike Nutt (Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost)
• Abstract: This proposal seeks support for an undergraduate research assistant Spring 2026 to help determine a common set of metrics that will help Global One Health Academy (GOHA) affiliates’ tell the stories behind their research, education and engagement. The Office of Outreach and Engagement (O&E) recently completed the application for NC State’s 2026 Carnegie Community Engagement Reclassification. This Classification is the most rigorous evaluation of community engagement available in higher education. It requires evidence that NC State’s reciprocal, asset-based community engagement is deep, pervasive and integrated into the structures of the university. Nearly 50 departments and centers were represented in this application, showing that dedication to our land grant mission is widespread. Nevertheless, the application process revealed limitations on the University’s ability to accurately and efficiently collect data and tell stories about NC State’s community engagement impact. This is a persistent problem which NC State scholars have highlighted for over a decade. O&E is now in the process of developing a set of metrics which will better align with the University’s mission and goals, as well as the objectives of important institutional designations like the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification and The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities’ Innovation & Economic Prosperity Program. This proposal is to validate the metrics being developed this semester via a survey and focus groups which will include Global One Health Academy affiliates and other important communities of practice on campus, like the Engagement Operations Council.

Cultivating Curiosity and Community Health: A One Health Garden at Mt. Olive Head Start

• PI: Virginia C. Stage (College of Agriculture & Life Sciences)
• Abstract: NC State University seeks to advance its commitment to reducing health disparities through the proposed Global One Health project. Building on the CDC-funded Healthy ROOTS initiative, this project will establish a preschool garden and renewed nature space at Mt. Olive Head Start in Columbus County, NC, to promote access to nutritious food, strengthen children’s connections to the environment, and foster sustainable practices that integrate human and environmental health.
  
  Head Start children face disproportionate health risks, with one in three entering the program overweight or obese, and many from rural communities experiencing limited access to fresh produce. Farm-to-Early Care and Education (ECE) strategies have been shown to improve dietary quality (through increased fruit and vegetable intake) and enhance children’s knowledge of food origins while also supporting mental health through engagement with natural environments. By embedding these strategies into the Mt. Olive center, this project will address urgent health disparities and provide sustainable, community-driven solutions.
  
  The project has three aims: (1) co-design a garden vision with teachers, Extension staff, and community partners; (2) deliver professional development and technical assistance while gradually integrating the Extension-supported food-based learning curricula; and (3) establish a functional, biodiverse garden that supports ecological resilience and measurable health benefits. Implementation will be community led, with Mt. Olive teachers, families, Columbus County Extension, and NC State Extension collaborating in all stages of planning, installation, and evaluation. By linking child health, ecological sustainability, and community engagement, this project demonstrates how the Global One Health framework can create healthier, more resilient rural communities.

Developing Coproduced Research for a Coproduced Resilience Education Program

• PI: Kathryn Stevenson (College of Natural Resources)
• Abstract: Climate hazards pose complex health challenges, including environmental and mental health. Accordingly, resilience strategies that are multi-and inter-disciplinary are needed. For example, in an education context, students benefit from programs that address not only their understanding of environmental impacts of climate change (e.g., flooding, poor water quality), but also support the mental health needs that climate disasters present. Since 2021, a program called Ready, Set, Resilience (RSR) has been supporting students across the state. Last year, GOHA seed funding supported the development of a co-produced evaluation framework that aims to capture the diverse benefits teachers, students, and communities are gaining from this program like development of personal resilience, connection, and motivation to build community resilience. Nine dedicated teachers across the state worked as RSR Evaluation Partners to begin this process, identifying target outcomes and drafting measures. Our research team is currently working to edit and validate these measures, and we would like to continue supporting the Evaluation Partners so they can remain intimately involved in the process. The ultimate goal will be teacher-generated evaluation toolkits to accompany RSR. Our hope is these tools will be useful for teachers to hone their own resilience education practices, as well as offer ways to identify and measure resilience education impacts across the program. As resilience education efforts that take a One Health approach by blending ecological, community, and personal health and resilience are rare and emergent, this type of research stands to make significant contributions to the STEM and environmental education fields.

This post was originally published in Global One Health Academy (GOHA).