Current SURE-EH Trainees

Nede Ovbiebo is a Senior majoring in Biochemistry and Public Health. She joined SURE-EH in June 2022 under the mentorship of Dr. Lianne Sheppard, Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. She is now working with Dr. Eddie Kasner, also in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. 

Her new research area focuses on the question “What is the current adoption of emerging pesticide application technologies among Northwest fruit growers and their impacts on occupational safety and health?” Nede is assisting with evaluating emerging pesticide application technologies as an intervention for breaking the pesticide exposure pathway on Northwest fruit farming systems. She will finalize a bilingual survey (REDCap) for deployment and then analyze responses qualitatively (Dedoose) and quantitatively (R).

Anysiah Taylor is a Sophomore majoring in Public Health - Global Health She Joined SURE-EH in October 2022 under the mentorship of Dr. Erica Fuhrmeister, Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. 

Her research area is the surveillance of antimicrobial resistance genes in wastewater to determine what is the clinical significance of CTX-M-15 and CTX-M-55.  Her research question asks “How does seasonality influence the abundance of antimicrobial resistance genes and their subsequent alleles?” She is testing methods to amplify and sequence antibiotic resistant genes (CTX-M type) in wastewater samples to differentiate gene alleles in samples.

Nisha BK is a Senior majoring in Neuroscience. She Joined SURE-EH in June 2023 under the mentorship of Dr. Julia Cui, Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. Her research question is “What are the effects of PCBs on the gut microbiome of  transgenic mice and how does that influence the activity of xenobiotic receptors such as PXR/CAR?” Her research experience includes liver tissue collection, blood serum collection, intestinal content collection and brain tissue collection. 

Leonardo Diaz is a Junior majoring in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. Je joined SURE-EH in June 2023 under the mentorship of Dr. Yijie Geng, Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences.  

Leonardo’s research question is “What effect, if any, do a variety of neuroactive microbial metabolites have on rescuing social deficits induced by known environmental neurotoxins?” He is exploring this question using a high throughput screening approach to strategically investigate the interactions between environmental neurotoxicants and neuroactive microbial metabolites and their effect on neurotoxicity in developing zebrafish model. 

Erica Ijeoma is a senior majoring in Public Health-Global Health. She joined SURE-EH in June 2023 under the mentorship of Dr. Elena Austin, Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. Erica’s research question is “How effective are HEPA filters in lowering the PM 2.5 in classrooms and how are they used by teachers?”  She is focusing on air quality monitoring in schools in the Highline Public Schools district using data collection and analysis using air monitoring software and HEPA filtration. 

Dylan Lundblad is a Senior majoring in Biochemistry. He joined SURE-EH in June 2023 under the mentorship of Dr. Judit Marsillach, Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. 

Dylans research focus is to 1) Study the cytotoxicity of diesel exhaust particles to the brain and 2) Study the cytotoxicity of diesel exhaust particles to the brain. He will accomplish this, in part, by carrying out behavioral testing of mice after chronic diesel exhaust exposures; evaluating the brain architecture of mice exposed chronically to diesel exhaust; determine cell death and type of apoptotic/necrotic pathway in mouse brains; and measure key components of inflammatory pathways in mouse brains. 

Maria Navarro is a senior majoring in Public Health-Global Health. She joined SURE-EH in June 2023 under the mentorship of Dr. Joan Casey, Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. 

Maria’s research question asks “What is the relationship between wildfire exposure and perinatal health and do social factors modify this relationship between race/ethnicity, income, educational level, and exposure to wildfires in the U.S.?” She is approaching this question through the use of  multivariate statistical models: 1)  Model relationship between wildfire disaster exposure and perinatal health, 2)  Model relationship between wildfire disaster and perinatal health endpoints with social factors (e.g., race/ethnicity, relationship with income), and relationship with educational level as effect modifiers, and 3)  Multivariate model with race/ethnicity, income, educational level together and analyze