Restoring Water, Culture, and Relationships: Using a Community-Based Participatory Research Methodology for Engineering Education

Abstract

is a registered professional engineer with over twenty years of practitioner experience in Hydraulic and Stormwater Engineering. The majority of her career was spent working for WSDOT Headquarters Hydraulics and Stormwater Office where she was responsible for providing statewide support including; design, research, training,and policy development. Aimee is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at the University of Idaho with an emphasis in Stormwater Management and Engineering Education. She received her bachelor of science in Mechanical Engineering from Gonzaga University and a master of science in Civil Engineering from Washington State University. She is also an adjunct member of the Civil Engineering Faculty at Gonzaga University where she teaches Stormwater Management and Senior Design.

The Drinking Water Tool: A Community-Driven Data Visualization Tool for Policy Implementation

“…WESS is a research partnership between the CWC, the University of California, Berkeley and Los Angeles, and Cal EPA's OEHHA. As a community-academic research collaborative, WESS draws upon the best practices of community based participatory research (CBPR) [27,28] and European Science Shop models [29] to advance sustainable and socially just strategies to improve drinking water quality. Key to CBPR is that study questions originate in the community and improve the lives of the people involved through the co-generation of knowledge and shared leadership throughout the research process [30], capacity-building, and environmental problem-solving [29].…”