CSDE Director Sara Curran, along with co-authors, penned a letter in Science entitled, “Abandoned land: Overestimated potential”. As a response to “Abandoning land transforms biodiversity” (12 May, p. 581), G. N. Daskalova and J. Kamp, they counter that rewilding projects on “abandoned” land are unlikely to succeed without considering landholding status and associated livelihoods. Successfully planning land uses to simultaneously support biodiversity conservation and human livelihoods must start by understanding the social systems and processes that lead to land-use change. Great stuff, Dr. Curran!

CSDE Affiliate Engi Attia co-authored a recent article in CHEST entitled “What Can Big Data Teach Us About Air Pollution and Pneumonia?” that provides confirmatory evidence that higher pollutant concentrations are associated with an increased risk of pneumonia hospitalization. Although the link between air pollution and lower respiratory tract infections is not a novel finding, most prior epidemiologic studies have focused on short-term pollutant exposures in the days or week before disease manifestation. Fewer studies have examined the chronic effects of pollutant exposure, in part because of the lack of cohorts with adequate data and sufficient statistical power to study this risk factor for a relatively rare outcome. Wonderful work, Dr. Attia!

Karen Fredriksen-Goldsen, CSDE Affiliate and UW Professor of Social Work, was recently quoted in Everyday Health on “What It’s Like to Come Out as Trans in Your 50s or Later”, penned by Sarah Prager. Using her research on aging in the LGBTQ+ population, Karen aids in shining light as to why there are large generational differences in how long older and younger adults took to start their transitions despite there being no statistical difference between older and young adults when it came to onset of reported gender dysphoria. You can read more about the findings and their implications in the full story.

CSDE is pleased to welcome Mike Renz as the new Program Coordinator! He was born and raised in the San Gabriel Valley region of Southern California where he attended Citrus Community College, majoring in Fine Arts. He also completed a certification course with The Institute of Children’s Literature, chasing his youthful dream of becoming a young adult author. At CSDE, Mike assists with purchasing, budget reconciliation, coordinating travel, event planning, website management, among a myriad of other hats. Prior to joining CSDE at UW, Mike dipped his toes into many vocational lakes, working as a vault clerk, an office manager, a chiropractic X-ray tech and a mail carrier for the USPS. In his spare time, Mike enjoys spending time with his chosen LGBTQIA+ family, hosting dinner parties, HIIT training, yoga and lap dates with his cat, Minx.