Dr. Jennifer D. Roberts

Associate Professor, PHOEBE Laboratory Director @UMDPublicHealth • Co-Director @NatureRxUMD • Alum @BrownUniversity, @EmoryRollins, @JohnsHopkinsSPH • 🏃🏾‍♀️

[Dr. Jennifer D. Roberts @ActiveRoberts]

Thank you @WGRZ and @ClaudineWgrz for covering our work on how environmental racism is still impacting Buffalo’s East Side.

https://t.co/DMOBlF53iY

[Dr. Jennifer D. Roberts @ActiveRoberts]

@RogueChieftan Congratulations!!!

[Dr. Jennifer D. Roberts @ActiveRoberts]

For Buffalo, NY area folks, please share this summer opportunity for teens that I am leading with my colleague and friend Greg Bratman!
@JPBfellows @UMDPublicHealth @UW

[Dr. Jennifer D. Roberts @ActiveRoberts]

@OlmstedNetwork, do you mind if I used your FLO artwork to promote an Olmsted event that I’m lead July 13-15 in Buffalo @bfloparks?

@JPBfellows @UMDPublicHealth

[Dr. Jennifer D. Roberts @ActiveRoberts]

@OlmstedNetwork, would you mind if I used your FLO artwork to promote an Olmsted event I’m putting on July 13-15, 2025? 🥹
@bfloparks @SPHKNES @UMDPublicHealth

[Christopher Webb @cwebbonline]

Republican White women cheered as Trump vowed to kill DEI—then realized they benefited the most from diversity initiatives. But they’re still all in on the ban. Self-sabotage in real time.

[Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill]

It seems few people know what an “indirect cost” is or why it has to be 40-60%.

The reason the government forced universities to raise their indirect costs up to (typically) 40-60% was to force a huge amount of regulations on the universities while also minimizing the bookkeeping to comply with those regulations. This includes the work by contract managers, compliance lawyers, accountants, safety management, etc., who are required by the government per the terms of the contract. If universities had to allocate all those categories of labor to each contract hour-by-hour it would require too much bookkeeping, which would waste money. (I’m setting aside for now the question of whether or how much the regulations are wasting money and only discussing how you bookkeep the effort to comply with the regulations.)

So to save money, while also requiring universities to do these types of work, the government requires universities to roll those categories of labor into “cost pools” that must be allocated as a percent of the technical work in each of the contracts. While the actual “overhead” might be only 15%, these pooled labor charges that are required by the government are typically much more.

Second, the government doesn’t allow the universities to figure out their own indirect rates. These rates are determined by the federal government through audits every couple of years. The government then sends a document telling the university what rate to use for its cost pools. For example, the University of Colorado was told by the DHHS to use 54% (https://t.co/zLuEjM75st) and U. Nebraska was told by DHHS to use 55.5% (https://t.co/z2ZQ2cIkLK). 40-60% is not only reasonable to fulfill the terms of the contract, it is the rate that the government tells the university it can charge for all the work the government requires the university to do.

So if the government wants to reduce the indirect rate to 15%, then it needs to do one of these two things:

Either

(A) eliminate all the federal regulations that force the universities to do those categories of work (compliance, accounting, management, safety management, tracking harmful chemicals, etc.)

Or,

(B) stop requiring universities to pool those real costs into the “indirect cost” category and allow universities to include them in the “direct costs” of the contract.

If the government chooses (A), then the safety rails have been entirely removed. (Even if the government lowers the regulations without entirely eliminating them, the costs they impose will still be real costs that probably come out to more than 15%.)

Or, if it chooses (B), then the direct costs will go way up and research will actually be less efficient because all the bookkeeping, not more efficient.

But if the government caps the indirect rate at 15% without doing either (A) or (B), then it will be impossible to do research for the federal government without going bankrupt. That’s the worst possible choice. It will kill research in the US. Is that what we want?

I can explain it for you but I can’t understand it for you. It’s up to the reader not to be ignorant.

[Sybrina Fulton ~MsMiami~ @SybrinaFulton]

Happy Heavenly Birthday to my Son/Sunshine you would have been 30 today but……….
🐻💔💔👑🎂😭🙏🏾😘🥰
#TrayvonLivesOn #OurChildrenMatter
I will ALWAYS love you, 🐻 #February5th

[Dr. Jennifer D. Roberts @ActiveRoberts]

Come on through!

@umd_pcs @SPHKNES @UMDPRC @UMD_MPRC @UMDResearch @bsosumd @UofMaryland

[UMD Public Health @UMDPublicHealth]

“White Men’s Roads Through Black Men’s Homes: Understanding How Environmental Racism Continues To Shape Buffalo, New York"

Feb 10th -- don't miss UMD's @activeroberts presentation at @UMD_MPRC
Register here: https://t.co/wFuIpbn2O6

[Ana Lucia Araujo, PhD @araujohistorian]

RIP ❤️ Professor Kiah Duggins was among those lost in the mid-air plane collision at Reagan National Airport. Professor Duggins was set to begin a new chapter as a professor at Howard University School of Law this fall. May her memory be a blessing.

[Dr. Jennifer D. Roberts @ActiveRoberts]

Please stop telling me that I had a “free” to Africa for my 2025 @UofMaryland Winter Study Abroad course.

https://t.co/doyZyttyIK

[Dr. Jennifer D. Roberts @ActiveRoberts]

Even Senator Fischer seemed embarrassed by her husband’s weakness and disrespect.

[No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen @NoLieWithBTC]

The husband of a Republican senator just refused to shake hands or make eye contact with Vice President Harris.

The level of class you can expect from MAGA.

[Dr. Alyasah Ali Sewell @aasewell]

Recent Brookings Blog w/ @SociologistRay, @DrKLG4Health, @ActiveRoberts, & @aasewell discusses how stakeholders in St. Louis & Baltimore view community health. Features new data from @RWJF collaboration w/ @BrookingsInst, @UofMaryland, & @EmoryUniversity!
https://t.co/CFDhwQ4YAn

[Dr. Jennifer D. Roberts @ActiveRoberts]

My friend, @holvera, presenting at the @AmericanAnthro conference!
@JPBfellows

[Dr. Jennifer D. Roberts @ActiveRoberts]

My paper…the one in which I was told to publish in a "Black column" when I tried to publish this piece as a newspaper editorial…was chosen for the 2024 EDITOR IN CHIEF AWARD!

Thank you AJHP!

https://t.co/EVdvrQcweF

#DuBois #NatureEquity #BookerT #EJ

[Dr. Jennifer D. Roberts @ActiveRoberts]

This photos are stunning! Thank you to the photographer(s). Last week’s adventure was so wonderful and special! Thank you @OlmstedNetwork!

[Olmsted Network @OlmstedNetwork]

One of the highlights of Pop-Up Buffalo was spending time with our partners at Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy and touring Olmsted's parks and parkways with guide Lauren Becker. Find photos from our trip to Buffalo and Niagara Falls here: https://t.co/ki41dmUj1c

[Dr. Jennifer D. Roberts @ActiveRoberts]

#Tired

[University of Maryland Physical Cultural Studies @umd_pcs]

Gang’s all here ❤️🐢 Once a PCSer, always a PCSer ✊ #NASSS2024 #TeamNASSS #TeamPCS #UnityInDifference

[Dr. Jennifer D. Roberts @ActiveRoberts]

@umd_pcs Love seeing you all!!! 🤗