For Immediate Release
December 2, 2025

Contact: Hannah Noel, DNP, RN
Professional Development Manager
Castner Incorporated
hnoel@castnerincorp.com

Castner Incorporated Announces Open Applications for 2026 Environmental Health Research Institute for Nurse and Clinician Scientists (EHRI-NCS) Cohort (R25ES033542) — Learn from Leading Environmental Health Researchers and Join a Network of 100+ Scholars

The Castner Incorporated community invites applications for the 2026 cohort of the Environmental Health Research Institute for Nurse and Clinician Scientists (EHRI-NCS), a prestigious, National Institute of Health (NIH) / National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)-funded train-the-trainer and mentorship program designed to empower environmental health nurse and clinician scientists. The flexible, self-paced online curriculum is open now, and a synchronous workshop will convene January 5–9 and 30, 2026 — participants have the choice to attend the hybrid event virtually or in person at the Washington Duke Inn and Golf Club in Durham, North Carolina.

EHRI-NCS offers participants:

• Flexible learning through nine pre-recorded online modules followed by immersive, real-time workshop sessions.
• Train-the-trainer readiness — complete teaching toolkits and instructor materials enable graduates to launch environmental health coursework and research programs within their own institutions immediately.
• A vibrant, growing community — over 100 nurse and interdisciplinary scientists have already completed the program and continue collaborating through mentorship, research, and policy engagement.

The long-term professional leadership, growth and policy influence of alumni underscores EHRI-NCS’s mission: to build capacity for rigorous, equitable environmental health research through nursing and clinician science. Accomplishments and real impact on environmental health of past participants include:

• Rebecca Koszalinski, PhD, MS, RN, CRRN, FARN, FIEL, FAAN secured ongoing funding as PI for Phase 2 of Health Outcomes Associated with Algal Blooms of Cyanobacteria and Red Tide in Florida: Long-Term Health Impacts of Harmful Algal Bloom Exposure.
• Janice Hawkins, PhD, RN, CNS, FAAN appointed Vice Provost at Old Dominion University, effective June 10, 2025.
• Deidra Bonner, PhD student, MSN, BSN, RN, PHN selected as a Jonas Scholar, 2024-2026 and a Randall Lewis Health & Policy Fellow, 2025.
• Tara Heagele, PhD, RN, FAAN appointed Member, Advisory Commission on Green Initiatives, Hamilton Township Environmental Commission (June 2024–present).
• Lacey Heinsberg, PhD, RN integrated environmental exposure factors into the study protocol for the Health Outcomes in Pregnancy and Early Childhood (HOPE) Study, a major mother-infant research project in American Samoa.
• SueEllen Breakey, PhD, RN, FAAN assumed leadership as Director of the Center for Climate Change and Health Equity, guiding the institution in becoming the first NLN Center for Excellence in Climate and Health.
• Ann Marie Walton, PhD, MPH, RN, OCN, CHES, FAAN and Valerie Sabol, PhD, RN, MBA, FAAN from Duke University launched a free Coursera climate and health course for health professionals.
• Shawna Beese, PhD, RN elected to become the 10th Mayor of Millwood, WA with 62.9% of the vote in a campaign that included environmental health issues; will begin her term January 1, 2026. 
• Numerous EHRI-NCS alumni have been inducted into the American Academy of Nursing, reflecting national leadership and impact.
  

Applications are now open for multiple NIH/NIEHS-supported slots with tuition waivers available for qualifying U.S.-based applicants. We welcome participants who hold a doctoral degree (PhD, DNP, MD, PharmD, EdD, or equivalent) — as well as graduate nursing students who have taken at least 6 graduate level credits (or equivalent) in research methods and are currently teaching or mentoring registered nurses. Flexible arrangements are available to support scholars with varying circumstances.

The program flyer is attached. More about the program can be found here. The application form can be found here.

---

This workshop is supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under award number R25ES033452 (PI: Caster). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

About EHRI-NCS: The goal of this program is to enhance the discipline-wide capacity of nurse scientists and their interdisciplinary clinician scientist collaborators for advanced research methods in environmental health through a flipped classroom, train-the-trainer and mentorship program. The flipped classroom model will be utilized as the best-practice pedagogy to achieve higher order learning objectives with pre-recorded, online didactic lectures provided for participant preparation, followed by a synchronous 5-day training and post-course mentorship follow-up. Participants will receive train-the-trainer guides and extensive instructor materials to implement in their own institutions. 

The objectives are for the participant to 1) Design clinical research studies and research education with advanced environmental health methodologies, 2) Mentor other peer, student, and early career nurse scientists in environmental health methodologies, 3) Examine broader theoretical, philosophical, ethical, and legal contexts related to environmental health exposure science with implications for clinical policy, practice, education, and research, 4) Analyze strategies used for clinical environmental health interventions, 5) Describe trends in environmental health molecular approaches of symptom science, 6) Acquire new analytic skills applied to environmental health data, and 7) Compare and contrast the strengths, weaknesses, and applications of environmental exposure science measurements and methods in clinical research. 

We are recruiting participants who have already achieved their terminal doctoral degree and those currently enrolled in a graduate nursing program who educate, train, and mentor registered nurses in research trajectories. We support structures for participants with special circumstances that create a demonstrable need for additional training resource investment.

Course topics will include 1) Theoretical conceptualization, 2) Intervention Study Designs, 3) Participatory Action Designs, 4) Physiologic Measurement with Spirometry, 5) Biomarker Measurement, 6) Personal and Area Exposure Measurement, 7) Informatics and Analytics, and 8) Geomapping Skills.  

HEALTH POLICY/ORIGINAL RESEARCH| VOLUME 78, ISSUE 2, P201-211, AUGUST 01, 2021

Castner J, Bell SA, Castner M, Couig MP. Ann Emerg Med. 2021;78(2):201-211. doi:10.1016/j.annemergmed.2021.03.006

Abstract

Study objective: In a large-scale disaster, recruiting from all retired and nonworking registered nurses is one strategy to address surge demands in the emergency nursing workforce. The purpose of this research was to estimate the workforce capacity of all registered nurses who are not currently working in the nursing field in the United States by state of residence and to describe the job mobility of emergency nurses.

Methods: Weighted population estimates were calculated using the 2018 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses. Estimates of all registered nurses, including nurse practitioners who were not actively working in nursing as well as only those who were retired, based on demographics, place of residence, and per 1,000 state population, were visualized on choropleth maps. Workforce mobility into and out of the emergency nursing specialty between 2016 and 2017 was quantified.

Results: Of the survey participants, 61% (weighted n=2,413,382) worked full time as registered nurses at the end of both 2016 and 2017. At the end of 2017, 17.3% (weighted n=684,675) were not working in nursing. The Great Lakes states and Maine demonstrated the highest per capita rate of those not working in nursing, including those who had retired. The largest proportion of those entering the emergency nursing specialty were newly licensed nurses (15%; weighted n=33,979).

Conclusion: There is an additional and reserve capacity available for recruitment that may help to meet the workforce needs for nursing, specifically emergency nurses and nurse practitioners, across the United States under conditions of a large-scale disaster. The results from this study may be used by the emergency care sector leaders to inform policies, workforce recruitment, workforce geographic mobility, new graduate nurse training, and job accommodation strategies to fully leverage the potential productive human capacity in emergency department care for registered nurses who are not currently working.

---

---

Creating healthy environments by generating new knowledge and data-driven approaches for where people live, work, play, and learn.

---