Congratulations to Southern California ERC faculty member, Dr. Jian Li, for his appointment as Co-Chair of the NORA Cancer, Reproductive, Cardiovascular, and Other Chronic Disease Prevention (CRC) Cross-Sector Council’s Cardiovascular Working Group in May 2022.
NORA’s website shares that “the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) is a partnership program to stimulate innovative research and improve workplace practices. Unveiled in 1996, NORA has become a research framework for NIOSH and the nation. It now consists of ten industry sectors, and seven health and safety cross-sectors organized according to the major health and safety issues affecting the U.S. working population.
“Each council develops and maintains an Agenda for its sector or cross-sector. The collection of agendas comprises the agenda for the nation for improvements in occupational safety and health.” (‘About NORA,’ www.cdc.gov/nora/about.html)
The National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) Councils are co-chaired by NIOSH sector/cross-sector program leaders and their agendas serve as a critical input into NIOSH’s own strategic planning process.
According to the CRC Council webpage, “the NORA Cancer, Reproductive, Cardiovascular, and Other Chronic Disease Prevention (CRC) Cross-Sector Council brings together individuals and organizations to share information, form partnerships, and promote adoption and dissemination of solutions that work. It was formed in 2016 for the third decade of NORA. The Council seeks to facilitate the most important research, understand the most effective intervention strategies, and learn how to implement those strategies to achieve sustained improvements in workplace practice.
“The CRC Cross-Sector addresses many types of health outcomes, including occupational cancers, adverse reproductive outcomes, and cardiovascular disease among workers. Workers across many industry sectors are exposed to workplace factors that may be carcinogens or contribute to adverse reproductive outcomes. Occupational risks for cardiovascular disease are not well understood yet, but evidence suggests that some toxins and non-chemical workplace factors such as physical exertion, shift work, and psychosocial factors (e.g. job strain and other job stressors) may all contribute.” (CRC Cross-Section Council, cdc.gov/nora/councils/crc/default.html)
Jian Li has appointments in both the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health-Environmental Health Sciences and UCLA School of Nursing since 2019. Dr. Li has received three Early Career Awards from NIOSH and other international research societies and has published more than 100 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals. His research focus is on work stress and cardiovascular disease and looks forward to contributing more to the field with his new position.
