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Research Grants

2015 NIEHS/EPA Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Centers Annual Meeting

Date and Time

Thursday 10/29/2015 12:30PM EDT to Friday 10/30/2015 8:00PM EDT
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Location

The Grand Hyatt Washington
1000 H Street NW
Washington, DC 20001

Details

2015 NIEHS/EPA Children’s Centers Annual MeetingJoin us for the 2015 NIEHS/EPA Children's Centers Annual Meeting

During Children's Health Month, researchers, clinicians, federal government staff and scientists, representatives of professional organizations and other participants will convene to explore the interplay between research, clinical applications, and policy implications in the field of children's environmental health.

Additional Information

Meeting Registration Cost: Complimentary

Poster or Platform Abstract Submission Deadline:
Oct. 9, 2015

Poster or Platform Abstract Specifications:
4’ high x 6’ wide

Hotel Reservation Deadline:
Oct. 9, 2015

Meeting Registration Deadline:
Oct. 16, 2015

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Research and Development and Office of Children's Health Protection, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences are working together to sponsor and celebrate the Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Centers (Children's Centers) program and the Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units (PEHSUs) North American network.

The meeting will feature the researchers and senior scientists from the Children's Centers, the PEHSUs, scientists from federal agencies and others through interdisciplinary presentations and discussions that explore connections between research findings, clinical and community practice, and child protective policies. Speakers also will discuss approaches for communicating with the scientific community and for sharing research findings and technical information with parents and the public.

EPA Contact

NIEHS Contact

Registration Contact

Nica Louie (louie.nica@epa.gov)
Project Officer 
National Center for Environmental Research
(703) 347-8125 

EPA: Children's Environmental Health and
Disease Prevention Research Centers

Kimberly Gray (gray6@niehs.nih.gov)
Program Lead 
Population Health Branch 
(919) 541-0293

NIEHS: Centers for Children's Environmental
Health & Disease Prevention Research

2015 Children’s Centers Meeting Coordination Team (EPA_NIEHS_CEHC@icfi.com

Agenda:

2015 NIEHS/EPA Children's Centers Annual Meeting agenda (PDF)(2 pp, 188 K, 12/2/2016)

Speaker Bios: 

Emanuel Alcala, M.A.
California State University, Fresno
Central Valley Health Policy Institute

Emanuel Alcala joined the Central Valley Health Policy Institute (CVHPI) team in May of 2013. As a statistician he explores data from the Central Valley in an effort to uncover health outcomes. Management of these data produce reports, graphs, and maps that strive to achieve CVHPI’s mission.

After graduating with a B.A. in Psychology at California State University, Fresno, Emanuel earned a M.A. in Psychology with an emphasis in General/Experimental Psychology. Emanuel has more than four years of experience in a research setting. His past work includes working with underprivileged children as a Family Specialist. Emanuel is delighted to contribute to the Valley that has nurtured his education and hopes to give back to the community.


Kathleen Alexander, Ph.D., D.V.M.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Dr. Kathleen Alexander is Associate Professor in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation at Virginia Tech. Her research program is directed at exploring and understanding the factors that influence the emergence and re-emergence of diseases at the human- wildlife-environmental interface. The program embraces a systems biology approach to ecosystem health integrated with public health, beginning within host - pathogen dynamics and extending to the livelihoods of communities living with wildlife, including the impact on ecosystem function and local communities themselves. Dr. Alexander is also the board president of the Center for African Resource: Animals, Communities, and Land Use (CARACAL). CARACAL is a not for profit agency dedicated to the conservation of natural resources and improved rural livelihoods for local communities in Chobe Botswana. Dr. Alexander received her Ph.D. and D.V.M from the University of California, Davis.


Laura Anderko, Ph.D., M.S., R.N.
Georgetown University

Dr. Laura Anderko holds the Robert and Kathleen Scanlon Endowed Chair in Values-Based Health Care at the Georgetown University School of Nursing & Health Studies and serves as Director of the Mid-Atlantic Center for Children’s Health and the Environment (Region 3’s Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). She is a scholar and educator in the fields of epidemiology, public health, and environmental health. Dr. Anderko serves as Co-Chair of the National Environmental Health Partnership Council and is Vice President of the Healthy Schools Network, a member of the Regional 3 Health Equity Council (Office of Minority Health), Research Co-Chair for the Alliance of Nurses for a Healthy Environment, and Chair for the National Center for Children's Vision and Eye Health Advisory Board (Maternal Child Health Bureau, HRSA). She is a former member of EPA’s federal advisory committees: Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee, National Drinking Water Advisory Committee, and National Environmental Justice Advisory Committee’s Research Workgroup. In July 2013, Dr. Anderko was honored by the White House for her work in climate change and public health.

Dr. Anderko earned her Ph.D. in Public Health and her B.S. in Nursing from the University of Illinois, and her M.S. in Community Health Nursing at Northern Illinois University.


Carl Baum, M.D., M.Sc.
Yale University

Dr. Carl Baum is a Professor of Pediatrics at the Yale University School of Medicine, specializing in Pediatric Emergency Medicine and Medical Toxicology. Dr. Baum is also the Medical Director of the Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit Program – Western Operations. He is Director of the Center for Children’s Environmental Toxicology at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital. In 2005, Dr. Baum received the Children’s Environmental Health Recognition Award from the EPA Office of Children’s Health Protection.

He received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, a M.Sc. in Geological Sciences from Brown University, and a B.A. in Earth Sciences from Dartmouth College. He completed his residency in pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and fellowships in Pediatric Emergency Medicine and Medical Toxicology at Boston Children’s Hospital.


Linda S. Birnbaum, Ph.D.
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and National Toxicology Program (NTP)

Dr. Linda Birnbaum became the Director of NIEHS, of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and of the NTP in January 2009. In these roles, she oversees federal funding for biomedical research to discover how the environment influences human health and disease. Several advisory boards and councils provide Dr. Birnbaum and NIEHS/ NTP staff with input to accomplish this large task. She is the first toxicologist and the first woman to lead the NIEHS/NTP. She has spent most of her career as a federal scientist. Dr. Birnbaum also serves as an Adjunct Professor in the Gillings School of Global Public Health, in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and in the Integrated Toxicology Program at Duke University.

Dr. Birnbaum’s research and many of her publications focus on the pharmacokinetic behavior of environmental chemicals; mechanisms of actions of toxicants, including endocrine disruption; and linking of real-world exposures to health effects. Dr. Birnbaum has received numerous awards and recognitions, including election to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies in October 2010, one of the highest honors in the fields of medicine and health.

A native of New Jersey, Dr. Birnbaum received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.


Patrick Breysse, Ph.D.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Dr. Pat Breysse joined CDC in December 2014 as the Director of the National Center for Environmental Health and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. In this role, Dr. Breysse leads CDC’s efforts to investigate the relationship between environmental factors and health. He is also a board certified Industrial Hygienist and an editorial review board member for the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology.

Dr. Breysse came to CDC from The Johns Hopkins University where he served as Associate Chair for Educational Programs within the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Program Director for the Industrial Hygiene Training Program, and Co-Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Childhood Asthma in the Urban Environment. During his 30 years at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Breysse established a long-standing expertise in environmental health and a strong record as a leader in the field. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and has presented at more than 25 scientific meetings in just the past 5 years. Dr. Breysse’s research has focused on the evaluation and control of chemical, biological, and physical factors that can affect health, with a particular concentration on risk and exposure assessment.

Dr. Breysse received his Ph.D. in Environmental Health Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University in 1985 and completed postdoctoral training at the British Institute for Occupational Medicine in Edinburgh, Scotland.


Susan Buchanan, M.D., M.P.H.
University of Illinois, Chicago

Dr. Susan Buchanan is a Clinical Associate Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health. She is also the Associate Director of the Occupational Medical Residency Program at the University of Illinois Hospital. Dr. Buchanan is dual certified in Family Medicine and Preventive Medicine. She practiced primary care for more than a decade before joining the department, adding teaching and research to her active practice. Her practice involves the evaluation of pediatric and adult patients with health problems related to their environment in the workplace and community.

Dr. Buchanan also directs the Great Lakes Center Pediatric Environmental Specialty Unit for Region 5. Her research interests include the health of children and minority, low-income, and immigrant workers and reproductive environmental health, areas in which she has published a series of peer-reviewed studies.
Dr. Buchanan received her M.D. from Ohio State University and her M.P.H from the University of Illinois at Chicago.


Gail Christopher, D.N.
W.K. Kellogg Foundation

Dr. Gail Christopher is Vice President for Policy and Senior Advisor at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. In this role, she serves on the President’s cabinet that provides overall direction and leadership for the foundation. Since joining the foundation in 2007, she has served as Vice President for Program Strategy with responsibility for multiple areas of programming, including Racial Equity; Food, Health & Well-Being; Community Engagement and Leadership. She is also responsible for place-based programming in New Orleans and New Mexico.


Sally Perreault Darney, Ph.D.
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Dr. Sally Darney is Editor in Chief of the NIEHS Journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP). International in scope, EHP covers the wide spectrum of the environmental health sciences, with emphasis on innovative and interdisciplinary approaches. The journal strives to be a focal point for information dissemination about the latest research and news in environmental public health, and serves as a forum for diverse perspectives of science, government, industry, private, and public-interest groups on important and emerging issues of environmental health.

Dr. Darney previously led an independent research program in reproductive toxicology and epidemiology in EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD), publishing over 100 research papers and review articles. In addition to conducting research, she served as the Director of the Reproductive Toxicology Division in the National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, contributed to EPA reproductive toxicology testing and risk assessment guidelines, and represented EPA on the Interagency Coordinating Committee for the National Children’s Study and the Children’s Health Federal Taskforce workgroup on Reducing Racial and Ethnic Asthma Disparities. Most recently, Dr. Darney helped develop the research frameworks and strategic directions for ORD’s National Research Programs in Sustainable and Healthy Communities and Chemical Safety for Sustainability. In the broader scientific community, she is Past President of the Society for the Study of Reproduction and the American Society for Andrology, and has served as an Associate Editor for Biology of Reproduction, and the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, and as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Andrology.

Dr. Darney received her Ph.D. in Anatomy and Reproductive Biology from the University of Hawaii and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.


Gregory B. Diette, M.D., M.H.S.
Johns Hopkins University

Dr. Gregory Diette is Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Environmental Health Sciences. He is a pulmonologist with a practice devoted to the care of patients with obstructive lung diseases, including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). He has an extensive portfolio of patient-based research in asthma and COPD, supported by the National Institutes of Health and other sponsors. Dr. Diette’s current research focuses on identifying factors that cause or provoke asthma with special interest in air pollutants (particulate matter, NO2, secondhand smoke) and allergens (including mouse) that are especially problematic in inner-city homes. His research includes the effects of these pollutants and allergens on inflammation and oxidative stress. More recently, his research has been examining how dietary patterns, especially a Western-style diet, may increase susceptibility to inhalable pollutants and allergens.


Dana Dolinoy, Ph.D.
University of Michigan

Dr. Dana Dolinoy serves as Associate Professor in the Departments of Environmental Health Sciences and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and leads the Environmental Epigenetics and Nutrition Laboratory. This laboratory investigates how nutritional and environmental factors interact with epigenetic gene regulation to shape health and disease. She also contributes as an investigator in the NIEHS/EPA University of Michigan Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Center, investigating early exposure to bisphenol A, lead and phthalates, epigenetics, and later-in-life body weight and hormone outcomes. Dr. Dolinoy also leads the Biological Response Indicators Resource of M-CHEAR, a laboratory hub within the NIEHS-funded Children's Health Exposure Analysis Resource network (Principal Investigator: John Meeker). In 2011, she received the Norman Kretchmer Memorial Award from the American Society for Nutrition and the Classic Paper of the Year Award from Environmental Health Perspectives.

Dr. Dolinoy holds a Ph.D. in Genetics and Genomics and Integrated Toxicology from Duke University, an M.Sc. in Environmental Sciences and Engineering from the Harvard School of Public Health, and a B.A. in Environmental Sciences and Policy and Spanish from Duke University.


Ruth Etzel, M.D., Ph.D.
Office of Children’s Health Protection, U.S. EPA

Dr. Ruth Etzel is the Director of EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection. During 20 years as a Commissioned Officer in the U.S. Public Health Service, she served in a variety of public-sector leadership positions including: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Founding Chief of the Air Pollution and Respiratory Health Branch), U.S. Department of Agriculture (Director of the Division of Epidemiology and Risk Assessment), and U.S. Indian Health Service (Research Director at the Alaska Native Medical Center).

Dr. Etzel is the founding editor of Pediatric Environmental Health (a 3rd edition was published by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2012). This influential book has helped train thousands of doctors who care for children about how to recognize, diagnose, treat, and prevent illness in children from hazards in the environment. She has worked extensively with international organizations to educate health professionals about environmental health and to build their capacity to conduct environmental investigations. From 2009 to 2012, Dr. Etzel served as the Senior Officer for Environmental Health Research in the Department of Public Health and Environment at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.
Dr. Etzel has a broad background in public health, with specific training and expertise in pediatrics, preventive medicine, and children’s environmental health. After completing a residency in pediatrics, she became a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.


Elaine M. Faustman, Ph.D.
University of Washington

Dr. Elaine Faustman is a Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington School of Public Health. She is an elected fellow of the Society of Toxicology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has served on the National Toxicology Program Board of Scientific Counselors, the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Toxicology, and numerous editorial boards. She currently chairs the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Developmental Toxicology.

Dr. Faustman is Director of the NIEHS/EPA Center for Child Environmental Health Risks Research, which aims to understand the biochemical, molecular, and exposure mechanisms that define children's susceptibility to pesticides. In addition, researchers are working to assess pesticide risks to normal development and learning. Her research interests include understanding mechanisms of developmental and reproductive toxicants, characterizing in vitro techniques for developmental toxicology assessment, development of biologically based dose-response models for noncancer risk assessment, and development of decision-analytic tools for incorporating new scientific findings into risk assessment and risk management decisions.
Dr. Faustman received her Ph.D. in Toxicology from Michigan State University in 1980.


Maida P. Galvez, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.A.P.
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. Maida Galvez is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Preventive Medicine and Pediatrics at the Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine. A board certified Pediatrician, she completed the Academic Pediatric Association-sponsored fellowship in Environmental Pediatrics at Mount Sinai in New York. She directs the Region 2 Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit serving New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. She served as Co-Principal Investigator and as a New Investigator of the community-based participatory research project “Growing Up Healthy in East Harlem,” examining the environmental determinants of childhood obesity. She is also Co-Investigator of an NIEHS/NCI-funded project assessing environmental determinants of puberty in girls, part of the multicenter Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Project. Her areas of interest include community-engaged research, urban built environment, endocrine disruptors, and childhood growth and development. Dr. Galvez currently serves on EPA’s Scientific Advisory Board and CDC’s National Environmental Health Partnership Council.  

She received her M.D. and M.P.H. from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, trained in the Social Pediatrics Residency Program at Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and completed her Pediatric Chief Residency at Jacobi Medical Center, Bronx, New York.


Andrew Geller, Ph.D., M.S.
U.S. EPA

Dr. Andrew Geller is the Deputy National Program Director for the Sustainable and Healthy Communities Research Program at EPA. Dr. Geller has worked with scientists across the Agency to develop EPA’s research and public education initiative on Aging and Environmental Health. He became engaged with the Agency’s Environmental Justice efforts as a result of involvement with EPA’s Region 5 and as co-lead of the EPA’s 2009 workshop on Advancing the Science and Practice of Cumulative Risk Assessment.

Dr. Geller earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in Cognitive and Experimental Psychology at the University of Michigan and received his Bachelor of Arts in Biological Basis of Behavior/Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Geller completed postdoctoral training in Neurotoxicology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Center for Environmental Medicine and Lung Biology and with NHEERL through a National Research Service Award from NIEHS.

Previously, Dr. Geller was Chief of the Exposure Modeling Research Branch. He also served as the Assistant Laboratory Director for the core research program in Human Health and Computational Toxicology at the EPA National Health and Environmental Effects Research Lab (NHEERL).


Gary L. Ginsberg, Ph.D.
Connecticut Department of Public Health

Dr. Gary Ginsberg is a toxicologist for the Connecticut Department of Public Health and a lecturer at the Yale School of Public Health. He serves on a number of national committees including EPA’s Science Advisory Board, the National Academy of Sciences, and EPA’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee. His research focuses on the unique susceptibilities of children to environmental toxicants. He evaluates risks and sets standards for contaminants in soil, drinking water, food, air and consumer products. Dr. Ginsberg has been called on by other federal agencies to provide reviews including OSHA (silica workplace standard), CPSC (cadmium in children’s jewelry) and FDA (dental amalgam). His risk assessments on fish contaminants, synthetic turf fields, acrylamide, cadmium, and assessments pertaining to risks in children and those with genetic polymorphisms have been published in peer review journals. Dr. Ginsberg won the Society of Toxicology best risk assessment paper of the year award in 2009, and in 2006 he co-authored a book for the lay public called “What’s Toxic What’s Not”. He received his doctorate degree from the University of Connecticut.


Kimberly A. Gray, Ph.D.
National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences

Dr. Kim Gray is the Health Scientist Administrator for the Population Health Branch at NIEHS. She directs the Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Centers Program for NIEHS. She is a member of the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Centres Network for Children's Environmental Health at NIEHS. The Network supports translation of children’s environmental health research findings into effective public health strategies to improve children’s health around the world. She is the NIEHS Senior Advisor for Certificates of Confidentiality and a member of the NIEHS Protocol Advisory Board and the NIEHS Institutional Review Board.

Dr. Gray returned to NIEHS in 2001 after completing a postdoctoral fellowship in the NIEHS Epidemiology Branch, for which she examined the long-term effects of polychlorinated biphenyl exposure during pregnancy and childhood development using specimens and data collected from the Collaborative Perinatal Project.

Dr. Gray received her B.S. degree in Behavioral Neuroscience and her Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh. During her graduate training, Dr. Gray gained experience as an interviewer and assessor while working on the Women’s Health Initiative and Cardiovascular Health study. She received a National Research Service Award from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism for her work with Dr. Nancy Day examining the long-term effects of prenatal exposure to alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco and her work with childhood outcomes on the Maternal Health Practices and Child Development pregnancy cohort.


Michael T. Hatcher, Dr.P.H., M.P.H.
Chief, Environmental Medicine Branch, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, CDC

Dr. Michael Hatcher is a public health professional with 38 years of health promotion and disease prevention experience at the local, state, and federal levels of public health. He has led health promotion and disease prevention planning, initiative development and implementation that resulted in measurable population-level health improvements. His experience includes health system operation and performance improvement as well as health services research at the interface of population health and personal health care. His career has offered him many opportunities to participate in and undertake leadership roles in new state and national public health initiatives.

Dr. Hatcher is a native of Tennessee. He received his undergraduate public health degree and his M.P.H. from the University of Tennessee. His Dr.P.H. was earned from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a Fellow in the Leadership Doctorial Program within the Department of Health Policy and Administration.


Irva Hertz-Picciotto, Ph.D., M.P.H.
University of California, Davis

Dr. Hertz-Picciotto, Professor at the University of California Davis MIND Institute and Director of the NIH-funded UC Davis Environmental Health Sciences Center, is an environmental epidemiologist with over 300 scientific publications addressing environmental exposures, including metals, pesticides, air contaminants and endocrine disrupting compounds; their interactions with nutrition, genes or social factors; and their effects on pregnancy, the newborn, and child development. She designed and directs CHARGE (Childhood Autism Risk from Genes and Environment), the first large, comprehensive population-based study of environmental factors in autism, and MARBLES (Markers of Autism Risk in Babies – Learning Early Signs) to search for early markers that will predict autism, starting in pregnancy.

She has served on scientific advisory panels for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the NIH National Toxicology Program, and the California Governor’s Proposition 65 committee. In 2011, she received the Goldsmith Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology. Recently she co-founded (with the Learning Disabilities Association) Project TENDR (Targeting Environment and Neuro-Developmental Risks), a collaborative effort of scientists, clinicians, policy-makers and advocates that aims to decrease the incidence of neurodevelopmental disorders by reducing neurotoxicant exposures that contribute to them.

Dr. Hertz-Picciotto received her B.A., M.P.H., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.


Katie Huffling, R.N., M.S., C.N.M.
Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments

Katie Huffling is a Certified Nurse-Midwife and is the Director of Programs for the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments where she directs projects related to environmental health nursing practice, research, education, and policy and advocacy. She is part of a national and international network of nurses that work to integrate environmental health into nursing education and provide guidance and resources to pregnant women, parents, and others about health risks to children and their families.

Ms. Huffling has also written numerous peer-reviewed articles on environmental health problems and their relationship to pregnancy. In addition, she has developed an assessment tool for nurses and other clinicians to assess for environmental exposures of pregnant women. In 2011, she was a fellow for Reach the Decision Makers program at the University of California, San Francisco’s Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment.


James H. Johnson, Jr., Ph.D., M.S.
National Center for Environmental Research, U.S. EPA

Dr. James H. Johnson, Jr., is the Director of the National Center for Environmental Research in EPA’s Office of Research and Development. In this role, Dr. Johnson continues a life-long career dedicated to sustaining and advancing scientific research and education initiatives supporting environmental protection, quality-of-life programs, and environmental workforce development.

Dr. Johnson has served on numerous committees and boards for the National Academies, EPA, and academic institutions. He is a member of the Anne Arundel Community College (Maryland) Board of Trustees, and is Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering and Dean Emeritus of the College of Engineering, Architecture, and Computer Sciences at Howard University. Dr. Johnson is a member of the American Water Works Association and the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors. He is also a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and Board Certified Environmental Engineer of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists.

Dr. Johnson earned his Ph.D. in Applied Sciences from the University of Delaware and received a M.S. from the University of Illinois and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Howard University.


Dean P. Jones, Ph.D.
Emory University

Dr. Dean Jones is a Professor in the Department of Medicine (Pulmonary Division) with secondary appointments in Biochemistry and Pediatrics at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. He joined Emory University as an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry in 1979 and was subsequently promoted to Associate Professor in 1985 and to Professor of Biochemistry in 1990. He became Professor of Medicine and Director of the Clinical Biomarkers Laboratory in 2003. Dr. Jones also serves as the Integrated Health Sciences Facility Core Director of the NIEHS-supported HERCULES Exposome Research Center.

Dr. Jones’ research career has included studies of mitochondrial mechanisms of toxicity, redox systems biology, oxidative stress and antioxidant systems, compartmentation of metabolism, and high-resolution metabolomics. He currently is focused on applications of ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometry for precision medicine, with a long-term goal to use this as a foundation to sequence the exposome. These methods enable measurement of thousands of low abundance metabolites, including those derived from innate metabolism, the environment, diet, drugs, and the microbiome. Dr. Jones has recently focused on low-level environmental exposures, such as dietary cadmium, which can influence onset and progression of chronic diseases, and has active NIH-supported research programs on the metabolomics of cardiovascular, lung, eye, neurodegenerative, and infectious diseases and aging. He collaborates extensively on studies of diverse populations and disease processes.

Dr. Jones received his Ph.D. in Medical Biochemistry from Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, in 1976. He studied Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University and Molecular Toxicology at the Karolinska Institute as a postdoctoral fellow.


Margaret Karagas, Ph.D.
Dartmouth College

Dr. Margaret Karagas is Professor and Department Chair of Epidemiology at the Dartmouth College Geisel School of Medicine and Director of the Dartmouth Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Center.

Dr. Karagas’ research encompasses several epidemiological studies focusing on the etiology of human cancers and on adverse pregnancy and children's health outcomes. Her studies focus on identifying key factors—prevalent environmental exposures, host factors, and mechanisms—that affect health from infancy to adult life, and application of novel methods and technologies to understand disease pathogenesis. These include interdisciplinary studies of temporal changes in the incidence rates of keratinocyte cancers and emergent exposures, such as indoor tanning, and drinking water contaminants. Dr. Karagas has established a cohort of pregnant women and their offspring in New Hampshire to assess the sources and potential health impacts of arsenic and other exposures—on childhood infection, allergy/atopy, growth and neurodevelopment—through the Children’s Center. Her work involves collaborative studies of exposure biomarkers, individual susceptibility, and biological response to environmental agents, including the developing microbiome and immune response.

Dr. Karagas received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington.


Catherine Karr, Ph.D., M.D., M.S.
University of Washington

Dr. Catherine Karr is a pediatric environmental medicine specialist and environmental epidemiologist. She has a primary appointment in the Department of Pediatrics, Joint in Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, and Adjunct in Epidemiology. She is affiliated with the University of Washington Center for Children's Environmental Health Research and the Pacific Northwest Center for Agricultural Safety and Health. Dr. Karr has a general pediatric practice at the University of Washington Pediatric Clinic at Roosevelt and provides specialty pediatric environmental medicine consultation at this site and at the Harborview Medical Center.

As Director of the Northwest Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit, she sets the direction for outreach and education and for responding to queries from health care providers, government officials, and families regarding health risks associated with environmental exposures. She is involved in policy and education through the American Academy of Pediatrics National Council on Environmental Health. Her research areas include environmental contaminants and pediatric respiratory health, including asthma, health of farmworker children, and global children's environmental health.

Dr. Karr received her Ph.D. in Epidemiology, M.D., and M.S. in Toxicology at the University of Washington, and her B.S. in Biology at the University of Michigan.


Susan Korrick, M.D., M.P.H.
Harvard Medical School

Dr. Susan Korrick is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Assistant Professor in Environmental Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, with an appointment as an Associate Physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital. She is an Investigator with the EPA/NIEHS Children’s Centers at Dartmouth College and the University of Illinois.

Dr. Korrick’s research focuses on the developmental and neurocognitive toxicities of environmental contaminants, including metals, organochlorine pesticides, and polychlorinated biphenyls, and short half-life compounds such phenols and phthalates. The core of her research is the development (as Principal Investigator) of the New Bedford Cohort, an ongoing birth cohort study, results of which have expanded understanding of the neurobehavioral impacts of a variety of early life metal (e.g., methylmercury) and organochlorine exposures. More recently, Dr. Korrick has extended her research to include collaborative studies of outcomes-based risk assessment and methods development for analyzing exposure mixtures in the New Bedford Cohort. She has segued her experience with birth cohort studies into close collaborative efforts with other longitudinal studies, most notably two pregnancy cohorts developed via NIEHS/EPA Children's Centers at the University of Illinois and Dartmouth Medical School.


Bruce Lanphear, M.D., M.P.H.
Simon Fraser University

Dr. Bruce Lanphear is a Clinician Scientist at the Child & Family Research Institute at the British Columbia Children’s Hospital and a Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia. His primary goal is to help quantify and ultimately prevent disease and disability (asthma, learning problems and ADHD) due to exposures to environmental contaminants and pollutants. Over the past decade, Dr. Lanphear has become increasingly displeased by our inability to control the “pandemic of consumption”—the highly preventable, worldwide epidemic of chronic disease and disability due to industrial pollutants, environmental contaminants, and excess consumption. He is leading an effort to build the online Atlas of Environmental Health to enhance public understanding of how environmental factors influence human health.


De-Kun Li, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H.
Kaiser Permanente

Dr. De-Kun Li is a Senior Research Scientist at the Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Northern California. He is a reproductive and perinatal epidemiologist with extensive experience conducting epidemiologic studies examining in-utero exposures in relation to pregnancy outcomes and early childhood diseases, including childhood obesity and asthma, preterm delivery, low birthweight, birth defects, miscarriage and SIDS. He has more than 88 peer-reviewed publications. He is an existing member of an advisory committee for the Dartmouth Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Center, and currently serves as the Associate Editor of the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Dr. Li’s current research focuses on developmental origins of pregnancy outcomes and childhood diseases which include examination of (1) in-utero environmental exposures including endocrine disruptors (e.g., BPA) and electromagnetic fields (EMF), (2) safety and effectiveness of medication use during pregnancy, and (3) gene-environment interactions.

Dr. Li received his M.D. and M.P.H. from the Shanghai Medical University, Shanghai, China. He then received his Ph.D. in epidemiology and did post-doctoral training in environmental and molecular epidemiology at the University of Washington, Seattle.


Jennifer Lowry, M.D.
Children’s Mercy Hospital

Dr. Jennifer Lowry is the Director for the Mid-America Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit for EPA Region 7 and a Medical Toxicology liaison to the Region 7 Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. She is the Chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Environmental Health and a current member of the Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee for EPA. Dr. Lowry is board certified in Pediatrics and Medical Toxicology and spent 5 years as the Medical Director to the Kansas Poison Control Center. She is the Chief for the Section of Clinical Toxicology at Children’s Mercy Hospital and Professor in Pediatrics at the University of Missouri.

Dr. Lowry received her M.D. at the University of South Dakota School of Medicine. She completed a Pediatric Residency and Clinical Pharmacology/Medical Toxicology Fellowship at the Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri.


Michael C. Lu, M.D., M.S., M.P.H.
Health Resources and Services Administration

Dr. Michael Lu was named associate administrator of maternal and child health of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in 2011. HRSA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He is also Director of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), which aims to provide leadership, in partnership with key stakeholders, to improve the physical and mental health, safety and well-being of the maternal and child health population. Through its Title V program, MCHB serves 40 million women, infants, children, adolescents, and their families each year, including fathers and children with special health care needs.

Dr. Lu joined HRSA from the University of California, Los Angeles Schools of Medicine and Public Health, where he was associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and public health. Dr. Lu brings years of experience in MCH research, practice, and policy to his post at HRSA. Prior to his appointment to head up MCHB, Dr. Lu chaired the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality. He has served on two Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committees (Committee on Understanding Premature Birth and Assuring Healthy Outcomes, and Committee to Reexamine IOM Pregnancy Weight Guidelines), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Select Panel on Preconception Care.

While at UCLA, Dr. Lu was a lead investigator for the National Children’s Study. He also led a project to monitor and improve the quality and safety of maternity care in California. He was best known for his research on racial-ethnic disparities in birth outcomes, and his visionary leadership on life course. Dr. Lu taught obstetrics and gynecology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and maternal and child health at UCLA School of Public Health. He has received numerous awards for his teaching, including Excellence in Teaching Awards from the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics. As an obstetrician, Dr. Lu has attended over a thousand births, and has been voted one of the Best Doctors in America since 2005.

Dr. Lu received his B.S. in political science and human biology from Stanford University, his M.S. and M.P.H. from UC Berkeley, M.D. from UC San Francisco, and residency training in obstetrics & gynecology from UC Irvine.


Rob S. McConnell, M.D.
University of Southern California

Dr. McConnell is Professor of Preventive Medicine and Director of Southern California Children’s Environmental Health Center at the University of Southern California, where he has studied the effects of air pollution on children’s health. The role of air pollution in obesity and its metabolic consequences is a major current focus of interest and the theme of the Children’s Center. He has examined associations of air pollution with asthma and lung function, autism, and early markers for cardiovascular disease. Other interests include developing methods for estimating the burden of disease associated with near-roadway air pollution and for assessing exposure in environmental epidemiology. He directs the Career Development Program of the NIEHS-supported Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.


John Meeker, Sc.D., M.S., C.I.H.
University of Michigan

Dr. John Meeker is a Professor of Environmental Health Sciences and Associate Dean for Research at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. He is also a Certified Industrial Hygienist. Dr. Meeker is the Principal Investigator on numerous large-scale research studies, Associate Editor of Environmental Health Perspectives, and has served on various peer-review and advisory panels for EPA, NIH, and others in recent years. His work is wide-ranging and focuses on defining sources, magnitudes, and consequences of human exposure to environmental and occupational contaminants, and on identifying and evaluating strategies to control harmful exposures.

Dr. Meeker’s current research involves human exposure science and reproductive and developmental epidemiology studies of known or suspected endocrine-disrupting chemicals, such as phthalates, bisphenol A, pesticides, and flame retardants.

Dr. Meeker holds an M.S. and a Sc.D in Environmental Science & Engineering and Exposure, Epidemiology & Risk, respectively, from Harvard University, where he also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Environmental and Reproductive Epidemiology. He received a B.S. in Industrial Technology from Iowa State University.


Catherine Metayer, M.D., Ph.D.
University of California, Berkeley

Dr. Catherine Metayer is the Principal Investigator of the California Childhood Leukemia Study and Director of the Center for Integrative Research on Childhood Leukemia and the Environment, a federally funded Program Project for a Children's Environmental Health Center in the United States. She is also the Chair of the Childhood Leukemia International Consortium Studies.
Dr. Metayer is an epidemiologist currently focusing on genetic and environmental risk factors of leukemia and other cancers in children, adolescents and young adults. Her research portfolio focuses on the associations between environmental exposures, birth characteristics, medical conditions, nutrition, and genetic factors and the risk childhood leukemia. She is now expanding her research to other early-onset solid cancers.
Dr. Metayer received her Ph.D. in Epidemiology from Tulane University School of Public Health and her M.D. from the University of Bordeaux II in France. Prior to joining UC Berkeley, she was a Visiting Scientist at the U.S. National Cancer Institute investigating the risk of second primary cancers.


Mark Miller, M.D., M.P.H.
University of California, San Francisco

Dr. Mark Miller is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine in the Division of Occupational and Environmental Health at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He is also the Co-Director of the Western States Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit at UCSF and the Director of the Children’s Environmental Health Program at the California Environmental Protection Agency. Dr. Miller leads the COTC Core at the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Integrative Research on Childhood Leukemia and the Environment, where a diverse team of scientists is investigating possible environmental causes of childhood leukemia.

Dr. Miller has worked with Physicians for Social Responsibility to develop the Pediatric Environmental Health Toolkit, a resource to help clinicians incorporate preventive environmental health messages into routine pediatric care. He spent 13 years as a pediatrician in private practice in a small town in California. He is a co-author of A Story of Health, a multimedia e-book examining multiple environmental contributors to health and how they interact with genetics across the lifespan.

Dr. Miller was greatly influenced as a college student when he had the opportunity to visit Minamata, Japan as a guest of the Minamata Disease Victim’s group. Minamata was the site of one of the world’s first mass industrial poisonings, a result of mercury released from a company making material for the plastics industry. In his own pediatric practice, he began to develop educational materials for patients and their families to alert them to how environmental exposures could be affecting their health.

Dr. Miller received his M.D. and completed a pediatric residency at Michigan State University. He received his M.P.H. in Environmental Health Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley and completed a residency with the California Department of Health Services in Preventive Medicine.


Susan K. Murphy, Ph.D.
Duke University

Dr. Susan Murphy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Gynecologic Oncology, at Duke University Medical Center, where her laboratory is focused on the developmental origins of disease and on the epigenetics and novel therapeutic approaches in gynecologic malignancies. She leads the Duke Epigenetics Research Laboratory and is Director of the NICHES Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Center and Co-Principal Investigator leading the molecular biology efforts of the Duke-based Newborn Epigenetics STudy (NEST). NEST is a longitudinal birth cohort study providing new insights regarding the in utero environment's effects on the epigenetic regulatory regions of imprinted genes.

Her long-term research goals are to identify and utilize epigenetic changes that occur due to early life exposures, to improve diagnostics, and to develop new intervention and prevention strategies based on these findings.


Carolyn Murray, M.D., M.P.H.
Dartmouth College

Dr. Carolyn Murray is Director of the Community Outreach and Translation Core for the Dartmouth Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Center. She is a clinician in the Section of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and holds faculty appointments at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice where she teaches in the MPH program, and in the Departments of Medicine and Community and Family Medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth where she teaches medical students and resident physicians.

Dr. Murray received her M.D. from the University of Virginia, and her M.P.H. and B.S. from the University of California, Los Angeles. She completed residency training at the University of Colorado and is board certified in General Preventive Medicine/Public Health and Occupational Medicine.


Kari Nadeau, M.D., Ph.D.
Stanford University

Dr. Kari Nadeau is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics—Immunology and Allergy and Associate Professor of Otolaryngology at Stanford University School of Medicine. She is also the Director of Basic Science and Clinical Research at the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research at Stanford. Dr. Nadeau has a broad background in immunology, with specific training and expertise in key research areas on T cells.

Dr. Nadeau’s research focuses on the role of ambient air exposure on the developing immune system in children, with a focus on understanding the interaction between environment and the immune system by studying detailed mechanistic studies in T cells. She is working with Drs. Katharine Hammond and Ira Tager at the University of California, Berkeley, to link mechanistic immunology studies with epidemiological outcomes of ambient air pollution exposure. Dr. Nadeau has authored and co-authored more than 100 original papers, many of which focus on T cells and health outcomes.

Dr. Nadeau received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Immunology from Harvard University, an M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School, and a B.S. degree from Haverford College.


Frederica Perera, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Columbia University

Dr. Frederica Perera is a Professor of Environmental Health Sciences. Since 1998, she has served as Director of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health.

Dr. Perera is internationally recognized for pioneering the field of molecular epidemiology, using biomarkers to understand links between environmental exposure and disease. Currently, she and her colleagues are applying advanced molecular and imaging techniques within longitudinal cohort studies of pregnant women and their children, with the goal of identifying preventable environmental risk factors for developmental disorders, asthma, obesity, and cancer in childhood. These include toxic chemicals, pesticides, and air pollution, with particular focus on adverse effects of prenatal and early childhood exposures.

Dr. Perera’s areas of specialization include prevention of environmentally related developmental disorders and disease in children, cancer prevention through the use of novel biomarkers, environment-susceptibility interactions, and risk assessment. Her recent research also addresses the multiple impacts on children’s health and development of fossil fuel combustion—both from the toxic pollutants emitted and climate change related to CO2 emissions. She has written more than 350 publications, including 300 peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Perera has received numerous honors, including, most recently, the Pearl Award and the Heinz Award for her lifetime achievement in research for the protection of children’s health. 


Bradley S. Peterson, M.D.
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Dr. Brad Peterson is currently the inaugural director of the Institute for the Developing Mind at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. Dr. Peterson also holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Psychiatry at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, where he is director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. His research includes brain-imaging technologies to gain understanding of the origins of neurodevelopmental disorders and to map the complex pathways between the genetic and environmental influences that can trigger their onset or progression.

Dr. Peterson earned his M.D. from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine in 1987. He completed his residency in general psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and his postdoctoral research fellowship at the Yale Child Study Center. Dr. Peterson also completed a clinical fellowship in child psychiatry at Yale. He has trained adult and child psychoanalysis at Yale and Columbia.

Previously, Dr. Peterson served 13 years as the director of the Center for Developmental Neuropsychiatry at Columbia University. Before that, he spent 12 years at Yale University, where he served as Director of Neuroimaging at the Yale Child Study Center. He has published hundreds of papers and received numerous awards for his accomplishments in childhood neurodevelopmental disorders.


Karen E. Peterson, Sc.D.
University of Michigan

Dr. Karen Peterson is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the School of Public Health, Research Professor for the Center for Human Growth and Development, and Director of the Momentum Center: Driving Discovery to End Child Obesity (www.momentumcenter.org), all at the University of Michigan. She is also an Adjunct Professor of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Peterson is the Contract Project Investigator for the University of Michigan Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Center, “Lifecourse Exposures & Diet: Epigenetics, Maturation & Metabolic Syndrome.”

Dr. Peterson’s research focuses on understanding the influence of adverse exposures to metals and endocrine-disrupting chemicals on physical growth, maturation, and markers of metabolic homeostasis during sensitive developmental periods. She also studies the potential role that dietary quality and lifestyle behaviors might play in modifying the relationships between environmental exposures and child health and conducts substantial research on testing interventions to reduce child obesity.


Stephen M. Rappaport, Ph.D.
University of California, Berkeley

Dr. Stephen Rappaport is a Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Public Health. He is a pioneer in the emerging field of Exposure Biology and a prominent advocate of the concept of the “Exposome” as a new paradigm for Environmental Health.

To discover unknown causes of chronic diseases, Dr. Rappaport’s laboratory is conducting exposome-wide association studies that use untargeted analysis of small molecules and protein adducts in archived blood samples from diseased and healthy people. He has used environmental measurements and biomarkers to elucidate the human metabolism of several toxic chemicals, notably benzene, and to quantify interindividual variability in biomarker levels due to genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors. Dr. Rappaport has published extensively in areas related to the assessment of long-term chemical exposures for purposes of controlling hazards and investigating exposure-response relationships. He has written more than 230 peer-reviewed publications and has collaborated extensively with investigators throughout the world.

Dr. Rappaport received his Ph.D and M.S.P.H in Environmental Science and Engineering from the University of North Carolina and his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Illinois.


I. Leslie Rubin, M.D.
Southeast Pediatric Environmental Health Unit
Emory University

Dr. Leslie Rubin is the President and Founder of Innovative Solutions for Disadvantage and Disability and a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. He also serves as Co-director of the Southeast Pediatric Environmental Health Unit in the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University and Medical Director of Developmental Pediatric Specialists in Atlanta, Georgia.

Dr. Rubin currently provides clinical services, teaches at Morehouse and Emory Schools of Medicine, and is on several local, regional, national, and international committees and projects that address the needs of children with developmental disabilities, especially those from low income, minority, and undeserved communities, with a focus on environmental health disparities.

Dr. Rubin is originally from South Africa where he trained in Pediatrics and came to the United States in 1976. He was at the Hospitals of the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio until 1980 when he moved to The Children’s Hospital in Boston and the Harvard Medical School where he spent 14 years. In 1994, Dr. Rubin relocated to Atlanta, Georgia to become Director of Developmental Pediatrics at Emory University. Since 1998, he has been involved with the Southeast Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit at Emory. In 2004, he joined the faculty at Morehouse School of Medicine and started ISDD, a private, nonprofit organization, to address the challenges of environmental health disparities in children.


Sheela Sathyanarayana, M.D., M.P.H.
University of Washington, Seattle Children’s Research Institute

Dr. Sheela Sathyanarayana is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington. Dr. Sathyanarayana serves as the co-director of the Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit in Region X. Her research interests focus on exposures to endocrine disrupting chemicals including phthalates and bisphenol A and their impact on reproductive development. Dr. Sathyanarayana serves as the center director for The Infant Development and Environment Study, which is a multi-center cohort study of phthalate exposures in pregnancy and health outcomes in children. She was named Outstanding New Investigator within the University of Washington Center for Ecogenetics and Environmental Health. She currently serves as chair for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee and serves on the National Academies of Sciences, National Research Council Committee on Endocrine-Related Low Dose Toxicity.


Susan Schantz, Ph.D.
University of Illinois

Dr. Susan Schantz is a Professor of Comparative Biosciences at the University of Illinois Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. She is also Director of the University of Illinois Children’s Environmental Health Research Center.

Dr. Schantz’s research focuses on exposures to endocrine-disrupting chemicals during the prenatal and adolescent periods, two stages when the nervous system is particularly vulnerable to toxic insult. Her approach includes laboratory-based animal studies and parallel epidemiological studies. An important goal of these studies is to determine whether a high fat diet or obesity modify the effects of endocrine-disrupting chemicals on nervous system development and function.
Dr. Schantz received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.


Perry E. Sheffield, M.D., M.P.H. 
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. Perry Sheffield is Assistant Professor of Preventive Medicine and of Pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Her clinical focus is environmental pediatrics. Much of her research focuses on the health impacts of air pollution, temperature extremes, and climate change and potential adaptation strategies. Dr. Sheffield is Deputy Director of the EPA Region 2 Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit. Dr. Sheffield received her M.D. from the Medical College of Georgia and completed her Pediatrics Residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital and a fellowship in Pediatric Environmental Health at Mount Sinai.


Patrice Sutton, M.P.H.
University of California, San Francisco

Patrice Sutton is a Research Scientist spearheading the University of California, San Francisco’s Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment’s clinical outreach and translation efforts. She has over 27 years of experience in occupational and environmental health research, industrial hygiene, public health practice, policy development, and community-based advocacy. As a contractor to California's state health department from 1987 to 2006, Ms. Sutton was responsible for conducting all aspects of research investigations spanning a disparate range of issues, including lead poisoning, tuberculosis, asthma, and pesticide illness.

She has extensive experience collaborating with directly impacted workplace and community-based populations, labor, and governmental and non-governmental organizations in the development of research strategies and policy recommendations. Ms. Sutton also has extensive experience as a volunteer in support of communities and workers impacted by the nuclear weapons production cycle and has published over 50 peer-reviewed scientific articles and government technical reports.


Allison Sylvetsky, Ph.D.
George Washington University

Dr. Allison Sylvetsky is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Exercise Science at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. Dr. Sylvetsky joined the Milken Institute School of Public Health in 2014 from the Intramural Program at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) where she was a post-doctoral fellow in the Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Obesity Branch of the National Institute for Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).

Dr. Sylvetsky enjoys teaching and mentoring undergraduate students and is passionate about her primary research interest studying the metabolic and health effects of artificial sweeteners. Her research interests also include national trends in beverage consumption, prevention and treatment of childhood obesity, and psychosocial interventions for treating obesity-related conditions in children and adolescents. Additionally, Dr. Sylvetsky researches the development of taste preferences and how exposure to specific foods and beverage ingredients early in life may influence long-term dietary patterns as well as the development of the intestinal microbiome. In addition to her research and teaching, Dr. Sylvetsky looks for opportunities to translate nutrition science into clinical and public health practice.


Claudia Thompson, Ph.D.
National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences

Dr. Claudia Thompson is Chief of the Population Health Branch at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The Population Health Branch supports diverse programs in population-based, laboratory-based, and community-engaged research on environmental exposures and their effects on human health, with an emphasis on how timing of exposure affects health outcomes across the lifespan. Dr. Thompson has led NIEHS research efforts in response to national disasters, including the coordination of World Trade Center research and outreach activities; assisted in the NIEHS response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita; and most recently, led a trans-NIH Deepwater Horizon Disaster Academic Community Research Consortium, which she developed to understand the potential health impacts of the Deepwater Horizon Disaster on community members residing in the Gulf States. Currently, Claudia is co-leading a trans-NIH working group on household air pollution and cook stoves and has a portfolio of grants related to cookstove research. She is Program Director for the Environmental Health Sciences Core Centers. Dr. Thompson received her B.S. in Biology from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Nutrition from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.


Leonardo Trasande, M.D., M.P.P.
New York University

Dr. Leonardo Trasande is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Environmental Medicine at the NYU School of Medicine, of Health Policy at the NYU Wagner School of Public Service, and in Public Health at the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development. His research focuses on identifying the role of environmental exposures in childhood obesity and cardiovascular risks, and documenting the economic costs for policy makers of failing to prevent diseases of environmental origin in children proactively.

Dr. Trasande is perhaps best known for a 2012 Journal of the American Medical Association study associating bisphenol A exposure in children and adolescents with obesity, and a 2011 study in Health Affairs which found that children's exposures to chemicals in the environment cost $76.6 billion in 2008. His analysis of the economic costs of mercury pollution played a critical role in preventing the Clear Skies Act (which would have relaxed regulations on emissions from coal-fired power plants) from becoming law. Dr. Trasande has also published a series of studies documenting increases in hospitalizations associated with childhood obesity and increases in medical expenditures associated with being obese or overweight in childhood, studies that have been cited in the Presidential Task Force Report in Childhood Obesity. He also published another landmark study identifying that a $2-billion annual investment in prevention would be cost-effective even if it produced small reductions in the number of children who were obese and overweight. Dr. Trasande has testified before the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee and Democratic Policy Committee. His work has been featured on the CNN documentary Planet in Peril and in National Geographic, and frequently appears on national media, including NBC's Today Show, ABC's Evening News, and National Public Radio.

Dr. Trasande received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School, and his M.P.P. from Harvard School of Public Policy. He completed a residency in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, a Dyson Foundation Legislative Fellowship in the office of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and a fellowship in Environmental Pediatrics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.


Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, M.P.H.
Children’s Environmental Health Network

Ms. Nsedu Witherspoon serves at the Executive Director for the Children’s Environmental Health Network (CEHN), where her responsibilities include successfully organizing, leading, and managing policy, education/training, and science-related programs. She is a leader in the field of children’s environmental health, and for the past 14 years has served as a key spokesperson for children’s vulnerabilities and the need for their protection, conducting presentations and lectures across the country. Ms. Witherspoon has held past appointments on the Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee for the Environmental Protection Agency and the Board for the American Public Health Association. Ms. Witherspoon has a variety of publications and has the distinct honor of having one of CEHN’s leadership awards, the Nsedu Obot Witherspoon (NOW) Youth Leadership Award, named in her honor. She is also the recent recipient of the William R. Reilly Award in Environmental Leadership, from the Center for Environmental Policy at American University. Ms. Witherspoon has a B.S. in Biology from Siena College and an M.P.H. in Maternal and Child Health from The George Washington University, School of Public Health and Health Services. A mother of three children, Ms. Witherspoon is a passionate advocate for all children today and tomorrow.


Tracey Woodruff, Ph.D., M.P.H.
University of California, San Francisco

Dr. Tracey Woodruff is a professor in Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences and Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco and the Director of the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment. She conducted extensive research and developed policy on environmental health issues, with a particular emphasis on early-life development. Her research includes evaluating prenatal exposures to environmental chemicals and related adverse pregnancy outcomes and characterizing developmental risks. She has authored numerous scientific publications and book chapters, and has been quoted widely in the press, including USAToday, the San Francisco Chronicle, and WebMD. 

Previously, Dr. Woodruff was a senior scientist and policy advisor in the Office of Policy at was previously at the US EPA. She was appointed by the governor of California in 2012 to the Science Advisory Board of the Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee. 

Dr. Woodruff received her Ph.D. and M.P.H. in the environmental health sciences from the University of California, Berkeley. She completed a Pew Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco’s, Institute for Health Policy Studies.


Rosalind Wright, M.D., M.P.H.
Mount Sinai Hospital

Dr. Wright is Professor of Pediatrics, a pulmonary physician, and the Dean for Translational Biomedical Research at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. She is a developmental epidemiologist with transdisciplinary training in medicine, environmental health, multi-level modeling and stress mechanisms. Dr. Wright has an overarching interest in explaining health disparities across the lifecourse, and her research has primarily focused on early life predictors of developmental diseases including asthma, obesity, neurobehavioral development, and lung growth and development. A particular focus is on the implementation of studies considering the role of both social (e.g., individual- and community-level psychosocial stress and other socioeconomic risk factors) and physical (e.g., air pollution, chemicals, dietary factors, allergens) environmental factors in explaining health disparities among lower-SES urban populations. Dr. Wright is the PI and Director of the Asthma Coalition on Community, Environment, and Social Stress (ACCESS) project as well as the Programming of Intergenerational Stress Mechanisms (PRISM) study funded by the National Institutes of Health at Harvard Medical School and is a member of the adjunct faculty in the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. This research program explores underlying mechanisms by incorporating biomarkers of physiological pathways through which psychological stress as well as chemical stressors may influence health.


Marya Zlatnik, M.D.
University of California, San Francisco

Dr. Marya Zlatnik is a Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, and a Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist, with clinical expertise in the diagnosis of fetal anomalies. She has a long-standing interest in environmental toxins in pregnancy. Dr. Zlatnik is a member of UCSF’s Program in Reproductive Health & the Environment, Associate Director of UCSF’s fellowship in Maternal Fetal Medicine, and Associate Director for Maternal Fetal Health & the Environment Program of the UCSF Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit.

Dr. Zlatnik earned her M.D. at the University of Iowa and completed a residency in OB/GYN, a fellowship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and received her Masters of Medical Science at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

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