How Dr. Ryan Sinclair studies environmental exposure alongside community scientists at Salton Sea

In this episode of CivicSciTV’s “The Perspective,” host Diya Dwarakanath explores community science research and environmental justice with Dr. Ryan Sinclair, environmental microbiology professor at Loma Linda University in California.

They begin by discussing Prof. Sinclair’s motivation behind community science and the challenges of re-thinking the research question for an academic scientist. They cover his “starter” study on shoreline mapping at Salton Sea with data collected by community members, and additional studies underway on water quality and hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg odor).

Prof. Sinclair shares community-led success stories and policy wins by working with agencies. He shares actionable advice on working with community partners, like Alianza CV, and engaging youth. “Alianza is forming the narrative and proposing how they want their future to look. And we’re going right along with that and trying to do the [related] science.”

“Instead of standing back and responding, eventually you get to the point where you’re trying to lead, and I think that’s the true success for community science,” noted Prof. Sinclair.

It ends with what’s next and the long-term impact of community science. Prof. Sinclair says, “Salton Sea is a really good case study for how to work with the community. I’ve spent over 10 years working with them and you see people you meet in high school and now they’re leaders! They’re working in agencies, non-profits, university labs.”

Ryan Sinclair

Sinclair’s recent study

Salton Sea initiative

Alianza CV

Chapters

0:00 CivicSciTV Intro

0:20 Program Overview

1:19 Exposure science

3:34 Theory of change

5:00 Challenge of centering research

6:52 Community-driven research

8:00 Surprising lessons learned

10:55 How collaboration worked

12:27 Alianza partnership

16:00 Fun challenges

17:35 Actionable advice

18:49 Policy wins, filling gaps

20:00 Youth advocacy at agencies

22:40 Community-led solutions

23:54 Value of community science

26:46 Unanswered questions, future hope

Diya Dwarakanath

Diya is an independent science and engineering journalist. She writes opinion-editorials, blogs, explainers, and feature articles on various topics. Based in Portland, Oregon, Diya is an insightful writer with "a minimalist approach and an eye for detail," said a professional writing colleague. Her unique skillset is combining her subject matter expertise with her interest in furthering science and engineering communication with the public.

Civic Science Media Lab

The CS Media Lab is a Boston-anchored civic science news collective with local, national and global coverage on TV, digital print, and radio through CivicSciTV, CivicSciTimes, and CivicSciRadio. Programs include Questions of the Day, Changemakers, QuickTake, Consider This Next, Stories in Science, Sai Resident Collective and more.