The grand challenges of the “Anthropocene” are being solved through convergence where two or more professions undertake transdisciplinary collaboration to care for human welfare and planetary health. Board Certified Environmental Engineers (BCEE), Advanced Public Health Nurses (PHNA-BC), and Registered Sanitarians (RS/REHS) provide pioneering leadership of interprofessional environmental health education to train V-shaped professionals pursuing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) in communities around the world. Rather than blur disciplinary boundaries, the V-shaped approach empowers parallel disciplines to pursue a shared vision, where: 1) technology supports flourishing of body, mind, and spirit from before conception through bereavement; and 2) improved social contracts equitably share harms and benefits of flourishing among individuals, families, groups, and populations. The keys to V-shaped professionalism described in this presentation, include: 1) best practice in pedagogy including blended learning, a flipped classroom, modified mastery instruction, problem-based learning, serving learning, as well as study abroad; 2) accreditation of programs of higher education grounded in comprehensive bodies of knowledge, 3) reinforced through appropriate professional licensure, and 4) securing public trust through advanced specialty certification identifying subject matter experts.
About The Presenter
Dr. Daniel B. Oerther, PE, BCEE, CEHS, DLAAS, FAAN(h), is President of the Council of Engineering and Scientific Certification Boards (CESB), Executive Director of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (AAEES), and Professor of Environmental Health Engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology. A lifetime honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN) and a Diplomate Laureate of the American Academy of Sanitarians (DLAAS), Dr. Oerther is renowned for interprofessional environmental health education, research, practice, and policy linking engineers, nurses, and sanitarians, beyond the bedside and into the community, local to global. Dan is the inaugural Fulbright-ALCOA Distinguished Chair in Environmental Science and Engineering to Brazil, an inaugural Distinguished Public Policy Fellow of the National Academies of Practice, among the world’s most highly cited authors (J.P.A. Ioannidis et al, commonly known as the Stanford/Elsevier top 2%), the most prolific author (2019-2023) in the SciVal category of “sustainable development; nurse; public health”, and investigator on more than $20M of sponsored research and development projects. In 2023, Dr. Oerther received both the Edith Moore Copeland Founders Award for Excellence in Creativity and Innovation from Sigma Theta Tau the International Honor Society of Nursing as well as the Joe Beck Educational Contribution Award from the National Environmental Health Association. And in 2024, Dan received the Duncan Fraser Global Award for Excellence in Engineering Education from the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies.
The IFEES-GEDC global webinar series usually takes place on Wednesdays, with support from Dr. Krishna Vedula and the Indo Universal Collaboration for Engineering Education (IUCEE). We welcome ideas and suggestions and are always looking for weekly presenters. If you’re interested in presenting on a specific topic, please reach out to the IFEES-GEDC Secretariat.