After more than two years of baseline research, construction and planting, the 0.65-acre Founders Square, located at Fifth Street and Muhammad Ali Boulevard, is now an inviting public space for everyone to enjoy. However, the Trager MicroForest is more than a refreshed urban park. It is a space for scientific inquiry into the impact of intense urban greening on human health and the wider urban environment.

“The vitality of downtown Louisville is inextricably linked to the vitality of the University of Louisville and the entire metropolitan community,” said UofL President Gerry Bradley. “This beautifully renewed green space will benefit not only residents and visitors to the downtown area, it also will serve as a research site for groundbreaking investigations into the connection between trees and health by UofL researchers.”

A 30-year lease with Louisville Metro Government allows the Envirome Institute to use Founders Square as an outdoor public laboratory. In the park, UofL researchers test the physiological effects of dense planting on human health and to what extent the forest�� affects temperature and humidity in the area. For Phase One of the project, the central area of the park has been densely planted with trees, shrubs and ground cover to optimize cooling and reduce urban heat.

The Trager MicroForest Project builds on the Envirome Institute’s groundbreaking Green Heart Project, which found that adding trees to a neighborhood lowered residents’ inflammation levels.

Prior to planting and construction, UofL researchers collected baseline data on how spending time in the space affects stress levels and physiological responses compared with spending time in nearby downtown areas that lack greening. In addition to human studies, the researchers are monitoring air and surface temperatures, air quality and other measures to assess the impact of densely planted trees on the environment in and around the park.

“The Trager MicroForest is part of the wider mission of the Envirome Institute to pursue knowledge about health,” said Aruni Bhatnagar, director of the Christina Lee Brown Institute. “This little forest will not only provide a pleasant space to spend time in downtown Louisville, but it will also help us test how dense urban planting can improve human health. The results of this experiment could inspire and inform the planting of microforests in cities worldwide.”

The microforest is considered part of UofL’s New Vision of Health Campus, located just across Fifth Street, which will include specially designed laboratory space to study sleep, nutrition and exercise, as well as offices and public spaces to investigate how environmental factors impact human health. The development of this innovative campus affirms UofL’s commitment to the vitality of Louisville’s urban core.

“We are excited for this project and hope to see further growth in the greening of downtown Louisville,” Michael Trager-Kusman said. “We believe having public spaces like these will only contribute to the growth of downtown Louisville.”

The park’s opening marks the completion of Phase One of the project. Planning and design for Phase Two of the Trager MicroForest will begin in late 2025. Learn more about .��

• 0.65-acre site
• 119 new trees
• 242 new shrubs
• 750 tons of new top soil
• 220 linear feet of new pathways
• 178 linear feet of retaining wall

of the official opening on May 13, 2025. View the .��

The Power 50 list identifies the city’s most influential people in business and related communities. Louisville Business First selected honorees from individuals nominated by the public and those covered in the publication’s own reporting and sourcing, and did not include elected officials.

Schatzel secured a position on the fifth annual edition of the list in 2024 after being included in 2023’s “Five on the Rise.”��

Under Schatzel’s leadership, UofL secured a $24 million funding package to launch the Louisville Clinical and Translational Research Center, a statewide effort to transform the university’s clinical research infrastructure and combat chronic conditions that disproportionately affect Kentuckians, like cardiovascular disease, stroke and cancer.��

The UofL president also oversaw procurement of the funding for the new planned Health Sciences Simulation Center and Collaboration Hub at the downtown Health Sciences Center campus, a project made possible by a landmark $280 million investment by the state of Kentucky. The center will increase the impact of the university’s research and health professions education effort, benefitting people across the commonwealth by producing highly qualified physicians, dentists, nurses and public health professionals and fostering collaboration among the city’s health care organizations.

Also returning to the Power 50 list is��, who has led the university’s academic health system since early 2019 and was the overseer for the recently opened UofL Health – South Hospital. The new facility provides access to health care for residents of Bullitt County and southern Jefferson County.

The 2025 Power 50 list also includes numerous Cardinal alumni and donors, along with current and past members of UofL boards.

Additionally, Business First announced an inaugural Power 50 Hall of Fame category of honorees, all who have UofL-ties. They are:

• Ulysses “Junior” Bridgeman, most recently the owner of Heartland Coca-Cola Bottling Co. and Bridgeman Sports and Media
• Christina Lee Brown, philanthropist, UofL Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute
• Edward “Ed” Glasscock, chairman emeritus, Frost Brown Todd LLC
• Alice Houston, co-founder and owner, HJI Supply Chain Solutions
• David Jones Jr., president and founder, Chrysalis Ventures
• Mike Mountjoy, founding partner and chairman emeritus, MCM CPAs and Advisors (now Cherry Bekaert)
• Phoebe Wood, principal, CompaniesWood and co-founder of KirtleyWood

The honorees will be recognized in the March 28, 2025, print edition of Louisville Business First, and online around this time.

The fishing event was organized by Kentucky Waterways Alliance (KWA) and UofL’s to help monitor the health of the Ohio River and its fish populations. Additional support was provided by Backcountry Hunters and Anglers��(Kentucky chapter), two centers affiliated with Envirome – the Center for Healthy Air, Water and Soil and the Center for Integrative Environmental Health Sciences – along with the Falls of the Ohio Foundation and Humana Foundation.

UofL researchers and KWA arranged for laboratory testing of the channel catfish and freshwater drum caught from the Ohio River at the Clarksville, Ind. park by volunteer anglers for an array of contaminants:�� heavy metals, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – known as forever chemicals. Researchers then compared these laboratory results with screening values and action levels from the EPA and the FDA.

Levels of the contaminants found in the fish were generally low, with most samples falling within safe consumption thresholds. One metal that exceeded EPA recommended screening levels was selenium, a naturally occurring heavy metal that can be affected by a fish’s age and diet. PCB levels for all fish samples were well below the FDA’s consumption action level threshold of 2.0 mg/kg of fish. However, PFOS, a forever chemical, was slightly above the EPA screening level in the freshwater drum. All forever chemicals were below recommended levels in catfish samples.

“These results highlight the need for continued monitoring of contaminants and will be used to inform ongoing waterway restoration efforts and updated consumption guidelines for fish caught in the Ohio River,” said Ted Smith, director of the Center for Healthy Air, Water and Soil. “This project is a powerful example of participatory science, allowing local residents to engage directly in environmental health research and contribute to the assessment of waterway health.”

The data gained from this event will support ongoing research and advocacy for cleaner water policies, helping to ensure the long-term health and sustainability of the Ohio River, the source of drinking water for millions of people, and its ecosystems.

The idea of a fishing day to enlist local volunteers in monitoring contaminant levels in the Ohio River first arose at the Association for the Advancement of Participatory Sciences regional conference hosted by the Envirome Institute’s Center for Healthy Air, Water and Soil in the spring of 2024.

“The Humana Foundation’s generous grant enables us to not only enhance our research capacity but also continue our commitment to breaking down barriers and achieving equal health outcomes,” said University of Louisville President Kim Schatzel. “This partnership will generate a lasting impact for all and allows us to further amplify our efforts to reduce health disparities and fulfill our mission of improving lives through education, research and service.”

This six-year initiative positions the university as a leader in addressing systemic health disparities through innovative solutions that can serve as national models. Led by Dean Katie Cardarelli and Ted Smith, professor of environmental medicine representing the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute, the center will advance interdisciplinary research and foster collaboration across multiple fields and deepen understanding of social determinants of health. By tackling systemic barriers to health equity, the center aims to foster best-in-class community engagement and solution-oriented research that aligns with national health equity standards.��

“The Humana Foundation is proud to continue its partnership with the University of Louisville in its mission to foster health equity and drive impactful research and community engagement,” said Tiffany Benjamin, chief executive officer of the Humana Foundation. “Together, we aim to generate lasting, meaningful change by addressing the root causes of health disparities and ensuring that innovative solutions are accessible to all.”

Why this research matters

Health disparities, shaped by social determinants such as housing, education and access to health care, contribute to unequal health outcomes across communities. By addressing these systemic barriers, the Humana Health Equity Research Center will play a pivotal role in reshaping public health policy and practice at a national scale. The center’s efforts will generate data-driven insights, develop best practices for community engagement and create innovative, evidence-based interventions to advance health equity.

Building on research leadership

This grant builds upon UofL’s strong foundation of health equity research, UofL’s and the Humana Foundation’s earlier health equity work and the university’s reputation as a leader in community engagement. The funding will enhance the university’s ability to attract top-tier faculty, expand resources and retain the prestigious Carnegie Foundation’s Classification for Community Engagement. These enhancements further UofL’s capacity to tackle pressing public health issues with a national and global reach.

National and regional impact

The Humana Health Equity Research Center will develop accessible frameworks for addressing health disparities, benefiting communities throughout Kentucky and serving as a replicable model for other regions. By integrating research with actionable solutions, the center is poised to influence policy and practice across the nation, solidifying UofL’s status as a trailblazer in health equity innovation.

The commitment to the Humana Health Equity Research Center is expected to enhance faculty resources within the School of Public Health and Information Sciences and the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute, allowing faculty to undertake advanced research on the social determinants of health and other health equity issues. It will also build upon previous work with Humana and the Humana Foundation to address health equity challenges in Louisville and Kentucky more broadly.

Through this grant, UofL strengthens its commitment to building healthier communities and ensuring equitable access to health resources for all, setting a benchmark for impactful research and meaningful engagement.

To help fill the needs, University of Louisville faculty members joined forces with Louisville nonprofit earlier this year to learn the most critical needs, then pack and deliver a 40-foot shipping container with those supplies to health care workers and researchers in Malawi.

The project originated with Rochelle Holm, a UofL associate professor with the who is conducting wastewater-based epidemiology in the city of Blantyre, Malawi, and Bethany Hodge, director of the in the UofL School of Medicine. When Hodge traveled to the country in 2023 to explore learning and service opportunities for UofL medical students in the Distinction in Global Health track, she took note of specific needs in the Malawi hospitals she visited.

“Whenever I am walking through a clinical site overseas or seeing other kinds of work going on, I am mentally taking inventory of all the things the doctors, nurses and staff are saying would facilitate their work,” said Hodge, who also is a board member of SOS, which recovers and redistributes surplus medical supplies that otherwise would go into landfills. “There were enough things on their lists that I knew SOS had in their warehouse that I wanted to connect the two entities once I got home to see if the SOS program could be part of filling the needs.”

Holm is permanently based in Malawi, where her research involves regular sampling of wastewater from two hospitals as well as community pit latrines to monitor infectious disease trends and outbreaks. The work requires supplies that are , specifically consumable items such as pipettes, personal protective equipment and laboratory analysis supplies. Holm also asked her research and hospital collaborators about their most critical needs.

Hodge relayed the hospitals’ and Holm’s needs to SOS, which assembled the items and organized a shipment that included durable medical equipment, surgical and consumable medical supplies for area hospitals, along with the research supplies for Holm’s work.

The materials, valued at $380,077, were packed in the container and departed Louisville in late May. The shipment arrived in Malawi on Sep. 20.

“The supplies we received from SOS are difficult to obtain in country, so this shipment is extremely valuable,” Holm said. “It will allow us to continue testing for pathogens circulating in the community with less concern about running out of materials for our research, as well as assisting the sampling sites with meeting critical supply needs to support health care delivery.”

The Malawi University of Science and Technology, which collaborates with Holm on the wastewater research, and its hospital partners received a portion of the shipment.

“As a university, we really appreciate the donation from SOS, which has come at the right��time when the university is strengthening its outreach aspect,” said Petros Chigwechokha, head of Malawi University’s Department of Biological Sciences. “The donation will be extended to the university’s key partners, Queen Elizabeth��Central Hospital and Thyolo District Hospital, where they will fill a big gap in equipment and consumables and ultimately��strengthen��health delivery services.”

Another segment of the shipment went to a heath care facility in southern Malawi supported by Bridge Kids International, a Louisville-based group that works locally and abroad to connect children to their African heritage culture and build relationships between Africans and African Americans.

Supported by $1.4 million in city funding, the project involves the demolition of the former community correctional center at 316 East Chestnut Street, which has been vacant since May 2020.

“LOUMED represents a transformative step for downtown Louisville, bringing together our medical and educational institutions to foster innovation and community growth. The addition of a communal green space is not just about beautification; it’s about creating a vibrant, inclusive environment where residents, students and visitors can connect and relax. By enhancing our urban landscape, we will attract top talent from across the nation, making Louisville a premier destination for health care professionals and innovators alike,” said Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg.

The demolition of the existing structure should be complete by the end of this year and LOUMED anticipates acquiring the property at that time, marking a pivotal milestone in the project’s progression. JLL, Louisville Commercial Real Estate Services, is managing both the demolition of the community correctional center and the construction of LOUMED Commons, along with architecture, engineering and design firm Gresham Smith, who has spearheaded the conceptual design for the nearly one-acre parcel of land.

The vibrant public space will serve as a central hub for activity within LOUMED, which includes the University of Louisville Health Sciences Center and downtown facilities of UofL Health, as well as Jefferson Community and Technical College and Norton Healthcare.

The space will feature:

• An open, park-like setting with a lush tree canopy and native plants;
• Well-lit spaces to ensure a safe and welcoming environment;
• A dedicated area for food trucks;
• Seating areas for relaxation and eating;
• Shade structures to offer relief from the sun;
• A pavilion structure to host programming and events;
• And public art installations to showcase local artistry.

LOUMED Commons will be designed with the latest sustainability practices and built using modular construction methods, allowing for phased development to ensure flexibility and adaptability. The first phase is expected to be completed by late 2025.

“We look forward to transforming a previously underutilized space into a vibrant, green and pedestrian-friendly hub,” said Nadareca Thibeaux, executive director of LOUMED. “LOUMED Commons will not only provide a much-needed respite from the bustling medical and education district, but also foster a sense of community and enhance the overall well-being of those who work in and visit the district.”

LOUMED is also actively collaborating with Mayor Greenberg’s office, Louisville Metro Public Works and UofL’s on the redevelopment of Chestnut Street, recognized as the “collective spine” of the district. With an estimated timeline of three to five years, this project is in its initial planning phase, bolstered by $1.75 million in city funding. Additionally, Gov. Andy Beshear and the Kentucky General Assembly have allocated a $100 million one-time budget expenditure to Louisville Metro Government for the revitalization of downtown, which includes LOUMED.

These efforts contribute to a broader vision, complementing the significant redevelopment and revitalization initiatives spearheaded by LOUMED’s anchor institutions: Jefferson Community and Technical College, University of Louisville, UofL Health and Norton Healthcare.

The four anchor institutions have and will be contributing more than $560 million to projects and investments within the district over the next three to five years. JCTC is expanding and enhancing its campus through the ‘Jefferson Rising’ project. Thanks also to support of the Kentucky General Assembly and Gov. Andy Beshear, the University of Louisville is planning a transformative Health Sciences Simulation Center and Collaboration Hub. UofL Health is nearing completion on the expansion of UofL Hospital, and Norton Healthcare recently implemented a new state-of-the-art labor and delivery unit and expanded neonatal intensive care unit.

UofL’s Health Sciences Simulation Center and Collaboration Hub will be located just down the street from LOUMED Commons, at Chestnut and Preston streets.

“This state-of-the-art building will be a game-changer for UofL, our city and the entire commonwealth. The center will expand multidisciplinary research opportunities for the university and enhance the educational experience of students pursuing STEM+H degrees, including nursing and other critical health care professions,” said UofL President Kim Schatzel. “This project shows UofL’s commitment to academic and research excellence and its vital role in shaping the future of education and health care in Kentucky.”

For more information about LOUMED and its initiatives, visit and follow on , and .

Part of the growth in numbers comes as the result of major strides in the areas of affordability, access and equity, meaning Cardinals from a variety of backgrounds can take advantage of learning opportunities and experiences with reduced financial burden. This academic year, UofL announced the��expansion of its Border Benefit Award��that allows students from some neighboring states to attend UofL at in-state tuition rates, along with the investment of $2.4 million��toward the Cardinal Commitment Grant for in-state residents.

UofL jumped 15 places in the 2023-24 U.S. News and World Report����ranking, from No. 146 to No. 131, and also topped the list of “best values” among national universities in Kentucky.��In the past few years, Cardinals have graduated with the second-lowest student debt among all Kentucky four-year public universities.

New leadership helps guide the way

Taking the helm in early 2023, UofL’s 19^th president, Kim Schatzel, spent six months in some 40 listening sessions to learn what was important to UofL’s students, staff and faculty, as well as community and government leaders.

She outlined��her first eight priorities��in September, and those priorities became the basis for a new 2023-2025��. Schatzel was��officially inaugurated��on Sept. 29 in a joyous ceremony filled with music and tradition that was held on The Oval outside Grawemeyer Hall. The historic event took place during UofL’s yearlong celebration of its��225th anniversary.��In recognition of her leadership, Schatzel was named among Louisville��Business First’s Power 50��for 2024, which identifies the city’s most influential people in business and related communities. The Louisville Defender Newspaper also named Schatzel as one of the “Women Who Choose to Challenge” in the publication’s women’s history recognition edition.����

In spring 2024, the university chose Gerry Bradley as permanent executive vice president and university provost. No stranger to the Cardinal community, Bradley had served as dean of the����since 2016 and as interim provost since July 2023. He previously held that same role from January 2022 to February 2023.

Several other top leadership positions have been filled throughout 2023 and 2024, including: Karlis Kaugars, vice provost for information technology services and chief information officer; Dayna Touron, dean, ;��John W. Miller Jr., dean, ; and Kathryn (Katie) Cardarelli,��dean, . This summer, Whitney Nash becomes dean of the , which celebrates 50 years of educating and preparing nurses for distinctive careers.

UofL also welcomed Pat Kelsey to lead the men’s basketball program, infusing excitement and enthusiasm into Card Nation.

Renovations, new infrastructure boost student success

The university is updating facilities and building new infrastructure to ensure students have the physical space to unleash their potential.

The��Center for Military-Connected Students��debuted its newly renovated offices in Brodschi Hall on Belknap Campus. The center focuses on meeting the needs of the more than 2,300 military-connected students enrolled at UofL. At the , construction of a new four-story, $90 million student success hub is underway. It will help us produce the next generation of engineers.

And thanks to a tremendously successful legislative session, the state budget appropriated $260 million toward a new Health Sciences Center Campus simulation center and collaboration hub. That’s the largest amount of funding for a single project in UofL’s history. It also is the largest project being funded in Louisville and represents the most general fund support for any single project among Kentucky’s colleges and universities this session. UofL also received about $69 million for needed repairs on some existing facilities.

UofL’s research and innovation powerhouse flourishes

Research and innovation continued to soar to new heights in academic year 2023-24. Just a few highlights were:

• More than $22 million in funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration was awarded to the Schools of��Medicine ($16 million)and��Nursing ($6.5 million)��for physician and nurse training to help increase Kentuckians’ access to health care, particularly in underserved rural and urban areas. ��
• The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded four grants totaling $11.6 million to researchers affiliated with UofL’s��to study factors affecting heart health. Through these projects, they hope to better understand how environmental exposures and tobacco products can affect the cardiovascular system, as well as how remodeling takes place in the heart after a heart attack.
• UofL researcher Cheri Levinson has received an $11.5 million grant from the NIH to continue her work addressing��the devastating effects of eating disorders.
• UofL researchers Susan Harkema, Charles Hubscher and collaborators recently won a $1 million grant from the NIH aimed at helping spinal cord injury patients regain function. They are now among four teams exclusively invited to participate in another competition with a potential prize pool of $5 million.
• More than 100 UofL researchers are among the top 2% most-cited in the world, according to a new��compiled by Stanford University and Elsevier. Citations show the value other researchers around the globe place on UofL research.
• Research conducted in UofL’s Micro/Nano Technology Center is investigating whether the antibacterial properties of��cicada wings��can be turned into an antimicrobial for use in places like food service, health care facilities and medical devices.��
• More than 80 of UofL’s top researchers, scholars and artists��were honored��in October at the 2023 Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity Awards ceremony.
• Four University of Louisville innovators have been selected by the prestigious National Academy of Inventors for its 2024 class of Senior��Members.��The four inventors selected from UofL–the only ones from Kentucky–are:��Thad Druffel, Nobuyuki Matoba, Thomas Roussel and Jagannadh Satyavolu.

Commitment to serve, transform the community��

Throughout the 2023-24 academic year, Cardinals have utilized knowledge and resources to advance the mutual needs of the university and the community. Earlier this spring, more than 400 students danced for 18 hours at the annual raiseRED marathon.��

The students raised more than $516,000 for Norton Children’s Cancer Institute and the . This is UofL’s largest student philanthropic effort. It has raised more than $5 million in its 11-year history.

In the mean time, former firefighter James Cripps was awarded one of the ��for teaching firefighters throughout Kentucky about occupational cancer and mitigation strategies. A manufacturing administrator at the UofL Health��, he hopes to eliminate some of those risks.

, meanwhile, celebrated a milestone:��200 years��of compassionate care, medical innovation and serving the underserved. It was Kentucky’s first hospital, first admitting patients in a facility downtown in 1823. Now, to address a real need for citizens south and west of Louisville, UofL Health recently cut the ribbon on UofL Health – South Hospital in Bullitt County just off Interstate 65.

As part of UofL’s ongoing effort to collaborate with five K-12 schools in West Louisville, Central High School Pre-Medical Magnet Program students received white coats this spring, recognizing their hard work and encouraging them to stay focused on their goals. Students shadow UofL doctors and get to practice performing simpler procedures, like sutures, through this immersive curriculum.

Recently, UofL’s McConnell Scholars and others heard a presentation by Sen. Katie Britt, R-Alabama, who spoke about the importance of respect and trust in building relationships to address the country’s most pressing issues. A guest of the McConnell Center, Britt spoke as part of its Distinguished Speaker Series. Celebrating its 30th year, the center also brought��Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, to Belknap Campus Oct. 30. She gave a public talk and met separately with the McConnell Scholars.

Students begin their next chapter at commencement

On May 11, more than 2,000 of the approximately 3,100 students who applied for degrees and certificates, will go across the stage at the KFC Yum! Center signifying their academic success.

This Commencement holds particular significance for the high school class of 2020, which graduated at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. For some, it will be their first chance to celebrate their educational achievement by taking part in a complete traditional ceremony.

UofL President Kim Schatzel will preside at both the 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. ceremonies. The����also will host a doctoral hooding and graduation ceremony for more than 100 graduates at 2 p.m. Friday, May 10, on Belknap Campus in the Swain Student Activities Center (SAC) Ballroom, second floor. All of these ceremonies will be broadcast live at��.

The University of Louisville and are embarking on a new project to answer that question and discover how changing a place can improve the health of its residents. A $500,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will fund an 18-month study to identify the features all neighborhoods should have in order to promote the health of all residents.

Researchers from Simmons’ Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. Center for Racial Justice and UofL’s , along with urban studies expert Michael Emerson of Rice University and legal scholar Shavonnie Carthens of the University of Kentucky, will survey residents of two Louisville neighborhoods, review existing data on environmental factors that affect health and consider legal aspects of neighborhood development, all with the goal of defining a “universal basic neighborhood” (UBN). A universal basic neighborhood is one that has all the necessary community assets that help residents thrive in their place.

The most recent from the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness, published in 2017, highlights stark differences in morbidity and mortality of those living in different neighborhoods across the city. For example, in Louisville’s predominantly Black communities, life expectancy is as much as 12.6 years less than in the most affluent, predominantly white communities. Black babies born from 2011-2015 have a death rate 1.95 times higher than the Louisville Metro average and 2.31 times higher than white babies. Diabetes, heart disease and cancer rates vary by location, race and income.

“We live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world and we still have places where living conditions contribute to diseases that are entirely preventable,” said Ted Smith, director of the UofL Center for Healthy Air, Water and Soil, part of the Envirome Institute. “This work is about diagnosing and treating places so that the health benefits are shared by many.”

Most existing efforts to address health inequities focus on providing health resources to eligible individuals. This study instead looks for ways to improve health at the neighborhood level by providing resources that make it easier for residents to make healthy choices.

“Neighborhoods, no matter where they are, are not inherently bad or good. They’re just neighborhoods. However, one thing that makes neighborhoods different from each other is access to health-supportive resources,” said Nancy Seay, chair of the James R. L. Diggs Department of Sociology at Simmons. “We know that every neighborhood has a rich fabric of local resources that residents access, and we want to uncover these and promote their utilization. Everyone, no matter where they live, wants and deserves to enjoy good health and a long life. This project can be a game changer for the way we think about designing and supporting neighborhoods and their residents.”

The scope of the research

The research team, led by Seay and Smith, will assemble evidence for place-based factors that are associated with good health, identify and map assets in two demographically distinct Louisville neighborhoods, examine the history of civic investment in Louisville and determine how to develop and implement city policy that supports health.

In the same vein as historic efforts to ensure clean drinking water and waste removal for entire communities, the UBN project will assess and rank factors that contribute to longer, healthier lives, such as opportunities for exercise and recreation, greenness and access to healthy food and transportation. This project approaches health equity with the idea that it is more efficient to invest in resources that benefit the health of all residents of underserved neighborhoods than in health interventions for individuals.

In the first stage of the project, set to start in September, Seay will lead work to map assets of Louisville’s Crescent Hill and California neighborhoods. Students in her Participatory Action Research class at Simmons will conduct door-to-door surveys, interviews and focus groups in those neighborhoods to reveal how residents of those communities find good health, what aspects of their environment they believe contribute to health and how empowered they feel to make changes. They also hope to identify important assets related to the specific interests and culture of those living in the neighborhoods that have not been studied previously. UofL students also may take the class through a reciprocal agreement with Simmons.

At UofL, Smith will lead a review of published studies that can help justify components of a UBN and provide criteria for weighting those components. Factors evaluated will include those that contribute to disease and those that promote health, such as access to parks, forms of transit and the variety of educational, recreational and entertainment venues.

Carthens, a legal scholar at the UK’s J. David Rosenberg College of Law and formerly at UofL’s Brandeis School of Law, will delve into the deep drivers of policies that must be reformed in order to achieve an optimal neighborhood environment. She will identify the legal framework required to support the public provision of a UBN and sectors of society best positioned to provide these resources.

The project also includes Emerson, Chavanne Fellow in Religion and Public Policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute and co-founder of Rice’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research.

At the project’s completion, the team expects to have a “playbook” that will assist communities in defining their own neighborhood needs and outline steps toward implementing the plan.

For more information:

Residents of the California and Crescent Hill neighborhoods who are interested in participating in surveys or focus group interviews for the project may contact Patricia Reeves at ��patricia.reeves@simmonscollegeky.edu

Community Partners who are interested in learning more about the project and opportunities for collaboration may contact Lauren Anderson at lauren.anderson@louisville.edu.

Project updates will be shared on social media at and the .

Air pollution, a warm bedroom and high levels of carbon dioxide and ambient noise all may adversely affect our ability to get a good night’s sleep, suggests a study from researchers with the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Louisville’s Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute (CLBEI).

The study, published April 18 in Sleep Health, is one of the first to measure multiple environmental variables in the bedroom and analyze their associations with sleep efficiency—the time spent sleeping relative to the time available for sleep. The analysis found that in a group of 62 participants tracked for two weeks with activity monitors and sleep logs, higher bedroom levels of air pollution ( or PM_2.5), carbon dioxide, noise and temperature were all linked independently to lower sleep efficiency.

The study was a collaboration between Penn Medicine and UofL’s CLBEI which is led by Aruni Bhatnagar. The researchers recruited participants from the CLBEI’s National Institutes of Health-funded Green Heart Project that investigates the effects of planting 8,000 mature trees on the cardiovascular health of Louisville residents.

“These findings highlight the importance of the bedroom environment for high-quality sleep,” said study lead author Mathias Basner, professor and director of the division of Sleep and Chronobiology in the department of Psychiatry at Penn Medicine.

The researchers suggest that more research is needed now on interventions that could improve sleep efficiency by reducing exposures to these sleep-disrupting factors.

“This could be as simple as leaving a bedroom door open to lower carbon dioxide levels, and using triple-pane windows to reduce noise,” Bhatnagar said. “We also applied for (future) funding that will allow us to investigate whether planting trees can improve sleep and cardiovascular health through improving health behaviors and the bedroom environment.”

About the study

In addition to work and family obligations that , a quickly changing environment due to growing urbanization and climate change seems to have made it harder to get a good night’s sleep. Sleep that is of inadequate duration, or inadequate efficiency due to frequent disruption (“tossing and turning”), affects work productivity and quality of life. It also has been linked to a higher risk of chronic diseases including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, depression and dementia.

This research is among a limited number of studies that looked at associations between multiple objectively measured factors in the sleep environment—such as noise and temperature—and objectively measured sleep.

For each of the environmental variables measured, the researchers compared sleep efficiency during exposures to the highest 20 percent of levels versus lowest 20 percent of levels. Through this analysis, they found that high noise was associated with a 4.7 percent decline in sleep efficiency compared to low noise, high carbon dioxide with a 4.0 percent decline compared to low levels, high temperature with a 3.4 percent decline compared to low temperature, and high PM_2.5 with a 3.2 percent decline compared to low PM_2.5. Two other sleep environment variables, relative humidity and barometric pressure, appeared to have no significant association with sleep efficiency among the participants.

Interestingly, only bedroom humidity was associated with sleep outcomes assessed with questionnaires, such that higher humidity was associated with lower self-reported sleep quality and more daytime sleepiness. This suggests that studies based on questionnaires may miss important associations readily detected by objective measures of sleep. This is not surprising as humans are unconscious and unaware of themselves and their surroundings during large portions of their sleep period.

Also, most study participants rated humidity, temperature and noise levels in the bedroom as “just right” regardless of the actual exposure levels.

“We seem to habituate subjectively to our bedroom environment, and feel there is no need to improve it, when in fact our sleep may be disturbed night after night as evidenced by the objective measures of sleep we used in our study,” said Basner.

The UofL study is believed to be the first to connect biomarkers for chronic disease risk to factors such as stress, employee capacity for work assigned, workplace physical and social environment and whether we see our work as meaningful. The findings are published in the��.

These factors are part of a new concept the UofL researchers have coined which they hope will become a model for both employers and employees to better understand the health impacts of workplace culture.

“For a long time, we’ve assumed that workplace culture can impact our health,” said Brad Shuck, an author on the study and organizational culture researcher in UofL’s . “This study shows, in biological terms, that assumption is true and improving our understanding of these links could help both employees and employers make better, more informed decisions that keep everyone healthy and happy in their work����Ա������DzԳ���Գٲ�.”

In the study, Shuck and�� researchers Kandi Walker, Joy Hart and Rachel Keith asked participants to complete questionnaires on their well-being and work determinants of health factors, such as how engaged and positive or negative they felt about their work environment. Walker and Hart hold faculty appointments in the College of Arts & Sciences and Keith is a faculty member in the School of Medicine.