Dr. Cavallari is a Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) and occupational epidemiologist. She received her doctorate in Environmental Health from Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health (HSPH) in 2007 where she also completed a post-doctoral fellowship. Since 2012, she has been an Assistant Professor within the Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at UConn Health.

Dr. Cavallari has a broad range of research experiences, jointly focused on exposure and epidemiology. She has performed panel studies among construction workers evaluating the association between welding fume exposure and cardiovascular disease by understanding the mechanisms through which small particles produce a cardiovascular response. She has also evaluated biomarkers of exposure including toenail, hair, and urine metals as well as cardiovascular response including heart rate variability, circulating adhesion molecules and other sub-clinical cardiovascular responses.

Yet, Dr. Cavallari’s worker in exposure assessment goes beyond inhalation exposure routes. Her research has also focused on evaluating the contribution of the dermal exposure route from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) to pavers working with asphalt fumes. More recently at UConn, Dr. Cavallari has been working on a green cleaning which sought to evaluate phthalate exposures and health symptoms among custodians as they transition from conventional to green cleaners. In addition to personal exposure monitoring and biomonitoring, Dr. Cavallari has also assessed exposures via questionnaires.

In addition to performing her own research, Dr. Cavallari is well-experienced in reviewing studies. Since 2008, Dr. Cavallari has been teaching occupational epidemiology. First at HSPH where she co-taught the Epidemiology of Environmental and Occupational Health Standards. As co-instructor, Dr. Cavallari taught graduate students to critically review the epidemiology that informs occupational and environmental health standards. She focused on allowing the students to carefully balance study results in light of the potential biases. She continues to lecture at HSPH and teaches Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology at UConn Health.

In summary, Dr. Cavallari has dedicated her career to understanding how occupational and environmental exposures contribute to health.