Introduction

[Loretta Ishida <ishidalo@yahoo.com>]

I am Loretta Ishida and I currently work at a non-profit in 
Tucson, AZ, that explores issues of sustainability as it relates 
to the building industry.

My main area of interest is community participation in 
environmental issues and community development.  In graduate 
school, I focused on a research approach called Participatory 
Action Research which, in part, seeks to find a balance between 
cooperative research between "experts" (academics, scientists, 
etc.) and community members (who are experts about their own 
situation).  This seemed a relevant topic to the EPA's attempts 
to broaden the public's role in its work.  Therefore, I have 
joined this discussion in part out of interest in the process 
itself.

I am also interested in the content of the discussion.  I was an 
EPA STAR (Science to Achieve Results) Fellow during my master's 
degree studies at Michigan State University.  Several other 
fellows throughout the country were including public 
participation in their research, and several of us talked about 
the EPA's public involvement policies at a STAR conference.  I 
felt this discussion was a great way to follow up on that first 
conversation and to "give back" to the EPA since it funded my 
studies