Environmental health professor named Fulbright Scholar

Gary Silverman, director of the Environmental Health Program, has received a Fulbright Fellowship at the School of Engineering in Work Safety and Environmental Hygiene in the Technological Institute of Costa Rica (ITCR). He will be involved in program assessment and development, teaching and research there this winter and spring.

Gary Silverman

Silverman’s association with the institute began through his work with the National Environmental Health Science and Protection Accreditation Council, the organization that recognizes BGSU as having one of the 24 accredited environmental health programs in the country.

The ITCR wants to build an academic program in environmental health to meet its charge to produce much of the environmental workforce needed to help align Costa Rica’s national environmental and economic goals. Silverman will evaluate the existing academic program at ITCR and help it reach standards comparable to those met by accredited programs in the United States.

According to Silverman, the need to build workforce capacity in Costa Rica reflects a global demand for well-prepared environmental health professionals—a demand also reflected by the outstanding job market for graduates from BGSU’s Environmental Health Program. By endorsing his Fulbright Fellowship, Costa Rica clearly identifies the link between environmental quality and economic development, he said.
In addition to working on academic program development, Silverman said he looks forward to working with Costa Rican students and faculty, teaching and initiating research.

This is Silverman’s second Fulbright Fellowship. During 1996, he was assigned to the National Institute of Public Administration in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. There he worked with government officials teaching about linkages between economic development and environmental quality.

He holds a doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles, and has written for many publications and participates in numerous professional organizations.

The Fulbright Program, created by former U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, was launched in 1946. It has since expanded into seven distinct programs, allowing visiting scholars to come to America as well as sending U.S. faculty and professionals abroad. The Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs in the U.S. Department of State sponsors the program with assistance from the Council for International Exchange of Scholars.

Silverman said that in addition to having the personal fulfillment of contributing to environmental development, he appreciates that the fellowship program gives the United States an opportunity to build bridges and mutual understanding around the world.