Building Undergraduate Degrees in Society, Environment and Health Equity

FAIN: AKB-298388-24

Regents of the University of California, Riverside (Riverside, CA 92521-0001)
Dana Simmons (Project Director: September 2023 to present)
Ellen Reese (Co Project Director: September 2023 to present)

A three-year project to develop and implement two new interdisciplinary undergraduate degree programs in the new Society, Environment, and Health Equity (SEHE) department: a BA in Environmental Studies and a BA in Global and Community Health. 

The Department of Society, Environment and Health Equity (SEHE) will establish two undergraduate majors and minors at the University of California, Riverside: a B.A. in Environmental Studies and a B.A. in Global and Community Health. These majors will offer students the opportunity to study social inequities, health, and sustainability - issues that deeply matter to them - in theoretically grounded scholarly literature that transcends disciplinary boundaries. Our students will gain methodological tools to grasp dynamic interactions of social, economic and political inequities, environmental toxicity and climate-related crises, health, disability and disease. They will be exposed to community-engaged approaches that prepare them to create and share evidence-based solutions to these inequities. The new degrees will train students for socially relevant careers in areas of high employment demand, and will serve community needs of the Inland Southern California region and beyond.