René LaPointe Jameson
René LaPointe Jameson joined Silent Spring Institute as a Research Associate in 2022. Passionate about health equity and environmental justice, René’s work focuses on reducing toxic chemical exposures and health disparities in communities of color through community-based research and intervention studies. She also supports projects aimed at preventing potential health impacts from drinking water contaminated with PFAS and housing-based exposures to air pollutants. Prior to joining Silent Spring, René worked in Kasiisi, Uganda doing research with the nonprofit Kibale Forest Schools’ Program to reduce elephant crop raiding with beehive fences.
René received a BS in Environmental Engineering from Tufts University, which she integrated with studying systems of oppression through a self-designed focus on race and justice. For her undergraduate research, she investigated present day environmental impacts of redlining, and found that historically redlined communities in Greater Boston are disproportionately impacted by climate change. As a CDC Undergraduate Public Health Scholar, René conducted research on engineering controls to limit transmission of SARS-CoV-2 with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health in 2021. She also worked for Cambridge Health Alliance’s Health Equity Research Lab where she collected and analyzed data to evaluate anti-racist interventions to reduce health disparities in substance use disorder treatment and recovery programs.
René is most proud of her work coordinating a food distribution program that served over 650 families in Greater Boston with the nonprofit Building Audacity. Her food justice work also includes co-designing and building a hydroponics center to grow food in areas impacted by food apartheid. When not doing research or community-organizing, René loves to knit and craft and hang out with neighborhood cats.