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Wildfire Smoke and Your Patients' Health

Developers of the Wildfire Smoke and Your Patients' Health Course

Dr. Wayne Cascio is Director of the Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment (CPHEA), Office of Research and Development, U.S. EPA.  Wayne earned a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University, and an M.D. from the University of Maryland.  He completed clinical training in internal medicine, and cardiovascular diseases at the University of North Carolina and post-doctoral training in electrophysiology at the Physiologisches Institut, Universität Bern, Switzerland.  Over 26 years in academia at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and East Carolina University he engaged in clinical practice and research, teaching, and administrative activities.

Prior to joining the EPA in 2011 Wayne worked to increase access to quality cardiovascular health care in underserved rural areas and served on EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee for Particulate Matter. He now serves as the EPA’s liaison to CDC's National Center for Environmental Health/ATSDR’s Board of Scientific Councilors. Wayne has authored or co-authored more than 185 journal articles and book chapters. He is a recipient of the 2018 American Public Health Associations Homer N. Calver Award, a 2013 EPA Gold Medal for Exceptional Service, a 2013 Office of Research and Development Impact Award, and numerous Scientific and Technological Achievement Awards. 

While at the EPA Wayne has sought to increase intra- and inter-agency cooperation in research that engages communities directly and produces research products needed by communities, cities and states to help solve their public health and environmental challenges.  Current research includes the study of the health effects of environmental pollutants especially wildland fire smoke to inform risk assessment, risk-management decisions, and the protection of public health through increased environmental health communication and literacy.  Wayne is a clinician/scientist and is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Diseases.

Maria Mirabelli is a senior service fellow with the Asthma and Community Health Branch of the National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She holds a B.A. from the University of Virginia, an M.P.H. from the Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, and a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Mirabelli completed postdoctoral training at the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology, in Barcelona, Spain. Her current work focuses on understanding the influence of air quality on respiratory health, causes and prevention of asthma exacerbations, and wildfire smoke public health.

Jason Sacks is a senior epidemiologist in the Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment (CPHEA) within U.S. EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD), in Research Triangle Park, NC. Jason is the project lead for the Particulate Matter (PM) Integrated Science Assessment (ISA) and plays key leadership roles in synthesizing the health effects evidence of air pollution for various National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) reviews.

His expertise is in the characterization of epidemiologic design issues (e.g., various forms of bias and model selection) that may influence the interpretation of results from studies that examine the relationship between short-term exposures to air pollution and mortality and respiratory-related hospital admissions and emergency department visits. Additionally, he has focused extensively on identifying those populations at greatest risk of air pollution-related health effects. Jason also collaborates with the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards (OAQPS) within U.S. EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) in conducting both national and international training classes on U.S. EPA’s Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program – Community Edition (BenMAP – CE).

Jason’s experience with communicating the risks of wildfire smoke is routed in his expertise on the health effects of PM exposure and in his contribution to the development of Wildfire Smoke: A Guide for Public Health Officials.

Susan Lyon Stone is a Senior Environmental Health Scientist with EPA’s Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards in the Ambient Standards Group, which reviews the national ambient air quality standards. She was team leader for the 2015 review of the ozone standards, and has also worked on the reviews of the standards for particulate matter and sulfur dioxide.

She is the Air Quality Index (AQI) team leader, has coauthored many of EPA’s public information documents about the AQI, the health effects of criteria pollutants, and she has given presentations across the U.S. and internationally on these subjects.  Ms. Stone is the project lead for multi-agency team revising the document Wildfire Smoke: A Guide for Public Health Officials and is a contributor to EPA wildfire health research, and is the co-lead for a study (National-Scale Activity Survey) that evaluated the effectiveness of AQI advisories in changing public behavior.  She has an M.S. from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Michelle Wayland is an Environmental Engineer with U.S. EPA’s Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, Information Transfer Group. She develops content for the AirNow Program and serves as the public liaison for AirNow. She creates air quality and AQI outreach materials, and she contributed to Wildfire Smoke: A Guide for Public Health Officials. She received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University.

Ellen Wildermann is as an Environmental Engineer with U.S. EPA's Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, Innovative Programs and Outreach Group.  She has contributed to the development of a number of training courses, fact sheets and other outreach materials on air pollution and use of the AQI. She received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame and an MSPH degree from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.