Dr. Jo Anne Balanay serves as a co-investigator, along with Drs. Venkat Gudivada and Rui Wu (ECU Department of Computer Science), on a pilot project that was selected this week to receive National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) funding through the Central Appalachian Regional Education and Research Center (CARERC) amounting to $15,000. Dr. Michael Stellefson (ECU Department of Health Education and Promotion) is the Lead Principal Investigator.  The project is titled “Occupational and Environmental Risk Factors Associated with Poor Health-Related Quality of Life in Central Appalachian Workers with COPD”. The goal of this study is to determine variability in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) based on ecological risk factors impacting Central Appalachian workers with COPD.