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02.28.03
Day in the life: Nanette Skiba
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impressive new project has come out of the Department of Neurology. It
receives no funding, it isn’t run by doctors, nurses or technical
specialists, and it isn’t even affiliated with Children’s. But
Nanette Skiba says her administrative job
on the Neurology unit inspired her to create an environmental and public
health awareness project called ANGELS, or Alliance of Neighborhoods for
Greater Environmental Living Standards.
Skiba has long been passionate about the issue of environmental neurotoxins—chemicals found in pesticides and pollutants that can damage the human nervous system. She is not a medical professional, but her work in Neurology has given her a close-up view of children with neurological disorders—some of whom have problems connected to environmental factors. “The care that Children’s provides addresses an important side of the problem: treatment. But I am interested in a dialogue about the effects of chemicals on children’s health.”
To bring that dialogue to the community, Skiba has partnered with the Codman Square Health Center in Dorchester and Spontaneous Celebrations, an artist community organization in Jamaica Plain, to show films on environmental health. The Feb. 21 screening of “Kids and Chemicals” drew dozens of parents to the Codman Square health center and sparked a lively discussion about the use of pesticides in Boston communities. For past film screenings, Skiba has lined up guest speakers such as Joseph Regna, MD, a medical toxicologist with the Society for Risk Assessment.
She has spent hundreds of dollars of her own money making the film series a reality, and hopes to secure funding and get others in the Children’s community involved. “There’s so much knowledge here, but a lot of it gets buried in scientific journals and stays within the medical community.” Skiba says her goal is to make environmental health information more accessible to ordinary families.
Her interest in film and public health is not limited to community organizing. She is also writing a screenplay about an HIV-positive woman and her relationships. The project has occupied two years of Skiba’s spare time, and she spent the last week of February on a “vacation” dedicated to working on the script. “I’m writing a screenplay because I have stories to tell,” she says.“And because I stink at writing novels.”
Both the screenplay and the environmental health project have required Skiba to do a lot of research. Fortunately, she works at the right place. “Dr. Alan Levitan has provided me with statistical reports and information about the social implications of patient care, and [hospital librarian] Alison Clapp has been very helpful,” Skiba says. “There are so many people at Children’s with something to share.”—CM
For more information on ANGELS of Boston, e-mail Nanette Skiba.