Professor at UM Carey School of Law teams with associate professor of applied environmental health at the UM School of Public Health to study disadvantaged workers during COVID-19.
Devon C. Payne-Sturges, DrPH, MPH, associate professor of applied environmental health at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, was already acutely aware of the many ways agricultural workers are vulnerable to unfair labor practices when the coronavirus pandemic brought this perennial problem into stark relief. While the number of COVID-19 cases among agricultural workers can be difficult to report, one metric from Purdue University places the number of confirmed cases at 537,000 and rising, with about 3,000 of those in Maryland.
Payne-Sturges, who serves as a board member of the Maryland Pesticide Education Network, wanted to research the impact of COVID-19 on these disadvantaged workers but realized she needed an interdisciplinary approach.
“I recognized how important it was to have a labor law perspective, so I searched the faculty list at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and did the email equivalent of a cold call,” Payne-Sturges says.
Her search brought her to Marley S. Weiss, JD, professor of law at UM Carey School of Law. Weiss describes their subsequent meeting via Zoom as “kismet.”
“This made it possible for me to pursue something I have research interest and background in, but I would not have felt capable of addressing on law alone without a collaborator who is knowledgeable about public health,” Weiss says.
You can read more about Payne-Sturges' and Weiss' research in the Spring 2021 issue of UMB’s CATALYST magazine.
The issue also highlights how students have received invaluable hands-on experience preparing COVID-19 vaccines and vaccinating patients at the SMC Campus Center as well as the important COVID-19 research being done across all of our schools. We also share the stories of our graduates, the first recipient of The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings ’76 Scholarship Endowment, the National Center for School Mental Health, and much more.