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Community Health Impact Projects

Stronger communities. Better health. Together.

A community-engaged research and public health program at the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health in El Paso — studying air pollution, extreme heat, food environments, and occupational risk, and translating findings into screening, evaluation, and action for U.S.–Mexico border communities.

Field teams, exposure science, and evaluation — on the border, and for partners wherever you are.

Partner with CHIP Explore the research
El Paso, TexasU.S.–Mexico borderCommunity-engaged research
Map of the El Paso–Ciudad Juárez border region with orange dots marking cohort participant residences.4,959participants in our geocoded border cohort — pilot data behind our cardiometabolic researchCardiometabolic domain → Map of the El Paso–Juárez border region with blue dots marking where consented biospecimens were collected.~300consented biospecimens biobanked from bilingual screenings, powering heat & air-pollution biomarker studiesEnvironmental & occupational → Map of the Paso del Norte region — El Paso, Las Cruces, and Ciudad Juárez.204nutrition programs addressing chronic disease, identified in our regional needs assessmentFood & nutrition → Coast to coastcollaborators across the U.S. and beyond — a network your project can draw onPartner with us →
Overview

Three domains, one community-engaged core.

CHIP joins environmental epidemiology, community-engaged research, implementation science, and applied evaluation — three overlapping research domains sharing a common community-engaged core. Environmental exposures drive cardiometabolic risk, food environments shape metabolic health, and occupational conditions cut across all three. The map places our full project portfolio on that model: tap a domain to rotate it to the top, or hover any project to see how it connects.

Environmental & occupationalCardiometabolicFood & nutritionTwo-color dot: bridges two domainsDotted ring: cross-institution collaborationUnlinked node: independent national collaborationHover or tap a project for details · select it to open its full project card

Community-engaged core

Environmental & occupational health

Environmental × Cardiometabolic

Cardiometabolic & chronic disease

Cardiometabolic × Food systems

Food systems × Environmental

Food systems & nutrition

Independent national collaboration

  • AI for clinical care
From measurement to action
  1. Screening
  2. GIS & exposure modeling
  3. Biospecimens
  4. Analysis
  5. Partner action
Research

From exposure measurement to community action.

Our research program spans three connected domains, each pairing field research with the methods and partnerships that turn findings into practice.

Cardiometabolic & chronic disease

Examining the drivers of cardiometabolic and chronic disease risk in border Latino communities, and delivering field-based screening that turns measurement into action.

Community cardiometabolic screening

Bilingual biometric screening in colonias, schools, and health fairs, with education and clinical referral.

Cohort & biomarker research

Longitudinal analysis of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular risk across the life course.

School physical activity & wellness

Wellness and physical-activity programming supporting cardiometabolic health.

Watercolor-style illustration introducing the cardiometabolic and chronic disease pillar.
Findings at a glance
Map of the El Paso border region with orange dots marking the home locations of Paso del Norte cohort participants.

4,959 participants in the Paso del Norte cohort

Wave 1, 2014–2020 · each dot marks a participant residence

Map of the El Paso region shaded by predicted probability of metabolic syndrome from the land-use regression model, from 40% in blue to 62% in red.

Metabolic syndrome risk, mapped across El Paso

land-use regression on traffic measures · cohort prevalence 37.3%

500+

Community members screened since 2025

cumulative biometric screenings

Sources: Paso del Norte Community Health and Environment Cohort; Aguilera et al., Transportation Research Record (2021), land-use regression of transportation data on metabolic syndrome risk; CHIP community screening program, 2025–present.

Environmental & occupational health

Studying how traffic-related air pollution, extreme heat, and occupational conditions contribute to cardiorespiratory and cardiometabolic health in communities affected by industrial and cross-border activity.

Border exposure assessment

Community-engaged risk assessment near the Bridge of the Americas, with air, soil, and water sampling.

Geospatial exposure mapping

Satellite data, air-quality monitoring, and spatial epidemiology, including de-identified records for asthma and respiratory illness.

Occupational heat & ozone

Wearable monitoring and tiered measurement of combined heat and ozone exposure among outdoor workers.

Watercolor-style illustration introducing the environmental and occupational health pillar.
Findings at a glance — CHIP occupational pilots
3 of 14HEAT-STRAIN THRESHOLD

Heat strain the worksite’s own readings missed

wearable core-temperature monitoring caught excursions invisible to ambient WBGT · 2 sustained the high-risk level 72 min each

69%DEHYDRATED PRE-SHIFT

Most workers started the day dehydrated

pre-shift urine testing flagged dehydration before heat exposure even began — a low-cost prevention point

38%STAGE 2 HYPERTENSION

Screening surfaced disease workers didn’t know they had

38% met Stage 2 hypertension thresholds, but only 24% had ever been diagnosed (inner ring) — a screening-to-referral opening

Sources: CHIP wearable heat-stress pilot (14 workers, 4 shifts, El Paso, 2026); heat & air-pollution co-exposure pilot (28 construction workers, 6 sampling days, May 2026). Preliminary pilot findings.

Food systems & nutrition

Evaluating nutrition, food-access, and wellness programs, and studying how culture, perception, and communication shape food choices in Latino families.

Produce prescription & incentives

Evaluation of nutrition-incentive programs supporting healthy food access among SNAP participants.

School nutrition & meals research

Nutrition education and school-meal engagement research in predominantly Latino elementary schools.

Regional food systems & needs

USDA Rio Grande Colonias Regional Food Business Center evaluation and a regional healthy-eating needs assessment.

Watercolor-style illustration introducing the food systems and nutrition pillar.
Findings at a glance
13.1–17.4%adult diagnosed diabetes
31–38%adult hypertension
34–41%adult obesity
60–78%food insecurity in colonias

The burden, by the numbers

adult prevalence ranges across counties in the region · CHIP regional needs assessment (2025), Paso del Norte Health Foundation

76.9%IMPROVED FOOD SECURITY

Food access improved for most participants

answering the food-insecurity burden above · USDA 6-item Food Security Module, 144 participants across three border clinics

58%IMPROVED BLOOD PRESSURE

Where food access meets chronic disease

of participants with elevated blood pressure at baseline improved it — mirroring the hypertension burden above

Sources: Healthy Eating to Prevent or Manage Disease — CHIP / Paso del Norte Health Foundation regional needs assessment (burden); Cultivating Health with Veggie Scripts & Gardening (USDA GusNIP) — CHIP evaluation with La Semilla Food Center, Centro San Vicente & La Clínica de Familia, Year 3 (outcomes).

Cross-cutting methods & capabilities
Community health screening with fingerstick testing and health assessment materials.

Community engagement & screening

A wide, bilingual community health worker network — IRB-experienced and rooted across El Paso’s colonias, schools, and worksites — that scales field data collection and on-site screening to new communities.

ScreeningsBlood pressure · Glucose · Cholesterol & full lipid panel · BMI · bilingual education & clinical referral

Community group reviewing GIS maps, environmental layers, and local exposure information.

Geospatial & environmental analysis

Satellite remote sensing, spatial epidemiology, and exposure modeling that link geocoded participants to the environments where they live and work.

ToolkitLand-use regression · machine-learning risk prediction · NASA satellite exposure estimates · TCEQ ambient air-monitoring · GIS mapping · geocoding

Nutrition education activity with children preparing fresh foods in a classroom.

Program evaluation & implementation

Mixed-methods evaluation built with partners — and the training and technical assistance to turn findings into practice in new clinics, schools, and worksites.

MethodsForce Field Analysis (Lewin) · logic models · validated pre/post instruments · interviews & focus groups · CHW training · technical assistance & capacity building

Community members and a researcher reviewing environmental exposure priorities and monitoring data.

Environmental needs assessment & personal monitoring

Community-engaged environmental risk and needs assessment paired with personal, worker-worn exposure monitoring — measuring real exposure where people live and work.

ToolkitKestrel WBGT · Atmotube PM₂.₅/CO₂ · wearable core-temp sensors · air, soil & water sampling · cumulative-risk mapping · biospecimen collection

Featured study · Now in the field

The Air & Heat Study

Our flagship community survey — assessing the health impacts of extreme heat and air pollution in at-risk populations across El Paso.

The community survey · Encuesta comunitaria

What border residents experience — in their own words, in both languages.

An IRB-approved bilingual questionnaire on sociodemographics, healthcare access, chronic conditions, respiratory symptoms, air-pollution perceptions, and lived experience of heat waves — administered with on-site screenings in colonias, schools, and health fairs, and paired with NASA satellite exposure estimates. More than 400 residents screened and roughly 300 swabs biobanked to date.

English · Español Colonias, schools & health fairs IRB-approved, HSC-SPH-25-0282 (2025) UTHealth PRIME
Companion studies — distinct protocols, one program

Three separate CHIP studies complement the survey from the occupational and cultural sides. See all projects →

Its own study · Personal monitoring

Wearable heat-stress monitoring for outdoor workers

A standalone pilot placing wearable physiological monitors on day laborers and construction, landscaping, and agricultural workers to detect and prevent heat illness.

Its own study · Personal monitoring

Heat & ozone co-exposure and chronic disease

A separate occupational study measuring personal heat and air-pollution exposure across work shifts, linked to blood pressure, respiratory symptoms, and cardiometabolic indicators.

Its own study · Culture & nutrition

Protein in school meals & bilingual nutrition communication

An independent study of how culture, perception, and communication shape food acceptance in border-region schools.

Ask about participating Browse all current projects
News & field updates

Recent milestones.

Updates from the field, new publications, and program news. For the day-to-day, follow along on LinkedIn.

Dr. Juan Aguilera with Congresswoman Veronica Escobar and fellow Texas Methane Network partners at her El Paso district office.
Policy engagement · August 2026

Meeting with Rep. Escobar on methane and health

Dr. Aguilera joined Texas Methane Network partners at Congresswoman Veronica Escobar’s El Paso office to discuss methane, air quality, and what both mean for community health — the same intersection CHIP studies in its border exposure work.

Six members of the CHIP field team behind a UTHealth Houston School of Public Health screening table at a community event.
Program milestone · August 2026

500 participants screened

Two community screening events in one day: the 15th annual Border Latch at Bassett Place, organized by the Binational Breastfeeding Coalition, and a session with Education Service Center Region 19. Together they carried CHIP’s community health screening program past 500 participants.

Dr. Juan Aguilera and Dr. Karen Del Rio beside their Taster Space research poster at NUTRITION 2026.
Conference · 2026

Taster Space evaluation at NUTRITION 2026

Dr. Aguilera and Dr. Karen Del Rio co-presented CHIP’s evaluation of Taster Space, the family-centered nutrition program for Latino families on the border, at the American Society for Nutrition’s annual meeting in Washington, DC. Dr. Aguilera also served as a judge for the Early Career Scientist Competition.

Dr. Juan Aguilera at Mendenhall Glacier during the ASPIRE Immersive Institute in Juneau, Alaska.
Field note · Summer 2026

Community-engaged research in Juneau, Alaska

Dr. Aguilera joined the NSF-funded ASPIRE Immersive Institute, learning place-based research from the Sealaska Heritage Institute — lessons now shaping CHIP’s border partnerships.

Karen Del Rio Guzman in doctoral regalia holding her diploma at UTEP commencement.
Recognition · Spring 2026

Karen Del Rio earns her PhD

CHIP researcher Karen Del Rio Guzman defended her dissertation on health disparities in El Paso’s low-income Hispanic communities — she is now Dr. Del Rio, PhD in Teaching, Learning, and Culture (UTEP).

Dr. Aguilera with four other presenters at the Medical Center of the Americas Foundation Biotech Showcase.
Recognition · Spring 2026

Selected oral presenter at the MCA Biotech Showcase

One of five presenters chosen at the Medical Center of the Americas Foundation showcase, presenting CHIP’s GIS work on how traffic, air pollution, and heat overlap at day-laborer hiring sites.

The AIM-AHEAD Bridge2AI project team beside their research poster.
Program milestone · 2026

Joining the AIM-AHEAD Bridge2AI for Clinical Care program

CHIP’s data-science work now includes an AIM-AHEAD Bridge2AI project predicting early recovery of consciousness from ICU records — the independent AI-for-clinical-care thread on our map.

Construction workers at a dawn safety briefing during the heat and ozone field pilot at El Paso Water’s Bustamonte plant.
Field research · Spring 2026

Heat & ozone pilot with construction workers

With co-PIs Dr. Idris, Dr. Perkison, and Dr. Aguilera, CHIP launched a NIOSH-funded pilot at El Paso Water’s Bustamonte plant, monitoring how extreme heat and ozone affect construction workers’ cardiovascular and metabolic health.

Real-time air-quality sensor map of the El Paso and Ciudad Juarez region.
Partnership · Spring 2026

Expanding neighborhood air-quality monitoring

With regional partners, CHIP is adding community air sensors across the Paso del Norte region — more local data to understand exposures and protect respiratory and cardiometabolic health.

Dr. Aguilera presenting a GIS exposure map at the APHA 2025 annual meeting.
Conference · Fall 2025

Border environmental health at APHA 2025

CHIP showcased environmental and psychosocial health research for Latino communities at the American Public Health Association annual meeting, with team presentations on GIS mapping and day-laborer health.

Copies of the book GIS Mapping for Community Health and Development by Priyanka Vyas and Juan Aguilera.
New book · 2025

New book: GIS Mapping for Community Health

Dr. Aguilera and Dr. Priyanka Vyas published GIS Mapping for Community Health and Development: A Toolkit for Policymakers and Practitioners (Routledge), turning years of community-based mapping into a practical guide.

Dr. Aguilera beside the ASN 2025 fellowships and funding banner listing his Early Career Nutrition grant.
Award · 2025

Early Career Nutrition Grant at ASN 2025

The American Society for Nutrition Foundation and National Pork Board awarded Dr. Aguilera an Early Career Nutrition seed grant to advance food-and-health work in U.S.–Mexico border communities.

Dr. Aguilera presenting produce-prescription evaluation methods at the Nutrition 2025 podium.
Field research · 2025

Produce-prescription findings at Nutrition 2025

CHIP presented its evaluation of a La Semilla Food Center produce-prescription program, using the Veggie Meter to measure changes in fruit and vegetable intake and cardiovascular health.

Community members marking pollution and traffic concerns on a neighborhood exposure map.
Community engagement · 2025

Focus groups with Bridge of the Americas neighborhoods

CHIP and partners held community focus groups with residents near the Bridge of the Americas, mapping local pollution, traffic, and health concerns to guide stronger protections.

Dr. Muinat Abolore Idris presenting heat-stress research at the APHA 2024 annual meeting.
Conference · 2024

Dr. Idris presents heat-stress research at APHA 2024

CHIP postdoctoral researcher Dr. Muinat Abolore Idris presented her construction-industry heat-stress gap analysis at the American Public Health Association annual meeting.

Follow CHIP’s director on LinkedIn ↗
Current projects

One program, one connected portfolio.

Every CHIP project pairs rigorous measurement with a community partner. Filter by domain to see how the work fits together.

Health impacts of heat & air pollution in at-risk populations

On-site screenings in colonias, schools, and health fairs paired with NASA satellite exposure estimates — 400+ residents screened, ~300 swabs biobanked.

In the fieldEnvironmentalCardiometabolicUTHealth PRIME

Wearable heat-stress monitoring for outdoor workers

Pilot of wearable physiological monitoring to prevent heat illness among day laborers and construction, landscaping, and agricultural workers.

Pilot underwayEnvironmental

Heat & ozone co-exposure and chronic disease

Personal air-pollution and heat monitoring across work shifts, linked to blood pressure, respiratory symptoms, and cardiometabolic indicators.

Data collectionEnvironmental

BOTA environmental health impact assessment

Community-engaged risk assessment near the Bridge of the Americas port of entry: air, soil, and water sampling with cumulative-risk mapping.

Data collectionEnvironmentalCollaboration

Air pollution & asthma GIS mapping

Spatial analysis of de-identified health records mapping asthma and respiratory illness against traffic and industrial exposure layers.

AnalysisEnvironmental

Texas Firefighter Cancer Study

Statewide collaboration examining occupational cancer risk among Texas firefighters.

ActiveEnvironmentalCollaboration

VALE+Tu Salud

Corner-based randomized trial testing a health and safety program with Latino day laborers.

ActiveEnvironmentalCollaboration

Raise the Bar

Evaluation of physical activity and wellness programming for military-connected students in El Paso schools.

Evaluation underwayCardiometabolicDoDEA

Cultivating Health: veggie scripts & gardening

Evaluation of produce prescription and gardening programs supporting healthy food access among SNAP participants.

Evaluation underwayFood & nutritionUSDA GusNIP

Rio Grande Colonias Regional Food Business Center evaluation

Multi-state evaluation of food-business support and supply-chain capacity across Texas, New Mexico, and colonia communities. The federal program was terminated in 2025; the regional partnership continues, and findings are being prepared for publication.

Publication in preparationFood & nutritionUSDA

Healthy Eating to Prevent or Manage Disease — regional needs assessment

Epidemiological scan, nutrition assets and workforce assessment, and coalition framework guiding healthy-eating investment across the Paso del Norte region.

ReportingFood & nutritionCardiometabolicPdNHF

Taster Space family nutrition evaluation

Evaluation of Desert Spoon Food Hub’s space-themed family nutrition program — fresh produce paired with hands-on activities and simple recipes that build children’s curiosity about fruits and vegetables. CHIP has been the evaluation partner since 2020, adding qualitative methods and a force field analysis in 2025.

Evaluation underwayFood & nutritionCollaboration

Protein in school meals & bilingual nutrition communication

How culture, perception, and communication shape food acceptance in border-region schools — where schools are also workplaces, connecting nutrition with occupational health.

In the fieldFood & nutritionEnvironmental
From data to action

What changes because CHIP is in the field.

Measurement is the starting point, not the product. Each CHIP activity is designed so that data collected with a community returns to that community as something usable — a result, a referral, a baseline, or a shared map.

Screening → Referral

Results leave the field with the participant.

Community screenings return biometric results on the spot, in English or Spanish, with plain-language education. Participants with elevated readings are connected to local clinical partners for follow-up — so a screening event is a doorway into care, not just a data point.

Baseline → Accountability

A before-and-after record for a changing border.

Biospecimens and environmental samples collected near the Bridge of the Americas before commercial cargo diversion give neighboring communities a scientific baseline — a reference point for evaluating whether health and exposure conditions actually change after the port does.

Assessment → Shared map

One inventory the whole region can plan around.

The regional healthy-eating needs assessment, developed with the Paso del Norte Health Foundation, documents 204 nutrition programs in one place — built so funders, coalitions, and providers can target gaps instead of duplicating effort.

Director
Juan Aguilera, MD, PhD, MPH

Juan Aguilera, MD, PhD, MPH

Director, Community Health Impact Projects · Assistant Professor, UTHealth Houston School of Public Health in El Paso

Dr. Aguilera is a public health researcher whose work examines how environmental exposures, occupational conditions, and social determinants contribute to chronic disease risk in underserved populations, with a focus on the U.S.–Mexico border region. His program integrates environmental epidemiology, community-engaged research, implementation science, and applied program evaluation.

  • RoleDirector, CHIP & Assistant Professor, UTHealth Houston SPH in El Paso
  • AffiliateAffiliate Faculty, Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
  • PhDInterdisciplinary Health Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso
  • MPHPublic Health, University of Texas at El Paso
  • MDUniversidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, México
  • ProfilesGoogle Scholar ↗ · ORCID ↗
Selected honors
2026

Award for Excellence in Community Service

UTHealth Houston School of Public Health · student-nominated faculty award

2026

ASPIRE Immersive Institute Fellow

National Science Foundation · community-engaged geoscience research

2026–27

HARP-BIO Scholar

NHLBI / Colorado PRIME, CU Anschutz · AI & data science for cardiopulmonary health

2025–26

AIM-AHEAD Bridge2AI Scholar

National Institutes of Health · AI/ML for clinical care

2025

NIH Climate and Health Scholar

National Institutes of Health

2025

ISEE Wartenberg Award

International Society for Environmental Epidemiology · national fellowship

2024–25

GeoCAFÉ Scholar

National Science Foundation · geosciences research network

2023

Excellence in Climate Leadership Award

American Public Health Association · competitive national award

The CHIP team
Denise Vazquez

Denise Vazquez

Research Coordinator
Health screenings; CHW coalition.
Abolore Idris

Abolore Idris

Postdoctoral Fellow
Heat and occupational exposure.
Karen Del Rio

Karen Del Rio

Research Associate
Acculturation, education, nutrition.
Colby Griffin

Colby Griffin

Graduate Research Assistant
Program evaluation.
Marisela Gutierrez

Marisela Gutierrez

Community Health Worker
Health screenings; mental health.
Matilde Saenz

Matilde Saenz

Community Health Worker
Health screenings; cancer.
Yadhira Trejo

Yadhira Trejo

Community Health Worker
Health screenings; lung function.
Perla Alarcon

Perla Alarcon

Research Coordinator
Needs assessment, food systems.
Publications

Peer-reviewed research.

Selected articles from a body of work spanning environmental epidemiology, community health, and climate and health — from high-impact journals to border-focused regional science.

  1. 2026Frontiers in Public Health
  2. 2025Nature Medicine

    Immune impacts of fire smoke exposure

    Johnson MM, Kaushik A, … Aguilera J, … Akdis CA, Nadeau KC.

  3. 2025Science Advances
  4. 2025Atmosphere
  5. 2025ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Information
  6. 2025Journal of Public Health Research
  7. 2025Routledge (book)
  8. 2025Annals of Global Health
  9. 2024Annual Review of Medicine

    Health effects of wildfire smoke exposure

    Gould CF, Heft-Neal S, Prunicki M, Aguilera J, Burke M, Nadeau K.

  10. 2024Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health
  11. 2024J. Environ. Occup. Health

    How effective are heat stress interventions at impacting outdoor workers’ well-being and quality of life?: a systematic review

    Idris MA, Ezeigwe OJ, Valenzuela VM, Markham C, Mena KD, Perkison WB.

  12. 2024Texas Public Health Journal

    Personal exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: a pilot study of teachers in El Paso, Texas

    Uwak I, Shields M, Vallamsundar S, Ramani T, Aguilera J, Li WW, Johnson NM.

  13. 2023Clinical Epigenetics
  14. 2023Seminars in Perinatology

    Air pollution and pregnancy

    Aguilera J, Konvinse K, Lee A, Maecker H, Prunicki M, Mahalingaiah S, … Nadeau KC.

  15. 2021Transportation Research Record

    Land-use regression of long-term transportation data on metabolic syndrome risk factors in low-income communities

    Aguilera J, Jeon S, Chavez M, Ibarra-Mejia G, Ferreira-Pinto J, Whigham L, Li WW.

  16. 2021Atmospheric Pollution Research

    Assessment of traffic-related air pollution at two near-road schools and residence in El Paso, Texas

    Rangel A, Raysoni AU, Chavez MC, Jeon S, Aguilera J, Whigham LD, Li WW.

  17. 2018Isotopes in Environmental & Health Studies
Dr. Aguilera on Google Scholar ↗ORCID ↗Selected peer-reviewed research from CHIP faculty and collaborators.
Partner with CHIP

One platform, three ways to work together.

CHIP was built on the U.S.–Mexico border, and the platform travels: bilingual field teams, screening infrastructure, exposure science, and evaluation methodology that can be applied wherever they are needed. All engagements are set up through UTHealth Houston — contact us and we will walk you through the details.

Grant collaboration

We strengthen your proposal

As Co-Investigator, MPI, or subaward site, CHIP arrives with assets most proposals spend a cycle building: pilot data from an established border cohort, exposure assessment and geospatial cores, community engagement infrastructure, and a field team ready for data collection from day one.

Contracted services

Your field & evaluation team on the border

Researchers based elsewhere can run their study here with CHIP as the field arm: bilingual recruitment, survey design and data collection, screening events, consented specimen collection, exposure and geospatial analysis, community needs assessments, and program evaluation — scoped, delivered, and reported. Contracting runs through UTHealth Houston, and we make the setup simple.

Implementation partnerships

Bring the model to your region

Deploy the CHIP model — community health worker–delivered screening with education and clinical referral — in your county, health system, or service area. We train, adapt, and evaluate alongside your local team.

Start a conversation

Students and trainees: field research, evaluation, and analysis opportunities are available within the program — reach out by email.

What we bring to your proposal
  • An established, IRB-experienced bilingual field team embedded in the community.
  • Pilot data: a ~5,000-person geocoded cohort, biobanked specimens, and validated exposure models.
  • A screening operation that doubles as a consented specimen-collection pipeline for epigenetic and biomarker studies.
  • Ready-to-deploy bilingual, IRB-approved instruments and evaluation designs.
  • A track record executing NIH, USDA, NIOSH, state, and foundation awards.
  • Letters of support and community partnerships on a grant timeline.
What one CHIP encounter captures

A single field encounter can collect data across the domains a proposal needs:

Sociodemographics & SDOH Healthcare access & utilization Chronic disease & family history Preventive screening adherence Respiratory health Air pollution exposure Heat exposure & vulnerability Biometrics — BP, glucose, lipids, anthropometrics Biospecimens for epigenetics Geocoded exposure linkage

New modules — like our air pollution and extreme heat instruments — extend the same bilingual questionnaire platform used in the founding ~5,000-participant cohort, so every new study stays comparable to a decade of baseline data.

Funded by

One platform behind a decade of federal, state, and foundation awards — CHIP investigators have led and partnered on work funded by sponsors across all three domains.

Federal

  • NIH (NIMHD)
  • USDA / NIFA / GusNIP
  • NIOSH — SWCOEH ERC

State

  • State of Texas Legislature
  • UTHealth Houston PRIME

Local & community

  • El Paso County
  • La Semilla Food Center
  • Desert Spoon Food Hub

Foundations & scientific organizations

  • American Society for Nutrition
  • Paso del Norte Health Foundation
Contact
CHIP — Community Health Impact Projects. Research. Partnerships. Action. Healthier Communities.

Research. Partnerships. Action. Healthier communities.