Elena Austin

2023 has been a year of community resilience for the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS). Together with many partners, our students, faculty and staff spearheaded projects to help Pacific Northwest communities respond and adapt to extreme heat, flooding, wildfire smoke and other impacts of climate change.

John Lykins Applied MS, Environmental Health Sciences Hometown Midland, OH Future plans A career as an industrial hygienist in the maritime industries. “I want to find solutions that have a minimal impact on people’s workflow while providing maximum protection for workers.”

Breathing wildfire smoke poses a health risk to people of all ages, not just young children and older adults, according to new research from the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) and colleagues at Seattle Children’s.

Learn more in our interactive feature: "At every age, cleaner air means better health." It’s not just textbooks and homework woes that unite schoolkids of the sunny Yakima Valley with their counterparts in rainy Seattle’s urban neighborhoods.

DEOHS is collaborating with cross-sector partners to prepare for a hotter future in the Pacific Northwest

Asheton Gilbertson MS, Occupational Hygiene Hometown Denver, CO Future plans Working as an industrial hygienist at Sandia National Laboratories. “My work with firefighters helped solidify that I made the right choice in coming to UW, because I would not have gotten to do this anywhere else.”

Two teams of researchers from the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciencs (DEOHS) and their partners recently received grants from the UW Population Health Initiative for projects focusing on supporting healthy home environments in Washington’s Yakima Valley and understanding the connections between community-based land management and disease outbreaks in Brazil.

Tiny pollution particles can cause major health problems. Our research shows how to minimize your risk.

Nancy Carmona PhD, Environmental and Occupational Hygiene Hometown West Sacramento, CA Future plans Teaching, research and working on environmental health policy

What started as a University of Washington-led project to measure air pollution near Sea-Tac International Airport has resulted in schools in the area installing portable air filters to improve classroom air quality.

In 2021, the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) welcomed new faculty, forged collaborations in climate and health, and continued our innovative, community-oriented environmental health research on areas including air pollution, COVID-19 and the far-reaching health impacts of wildfire smoke across Washington state. Explore our top stories below.

For Washington’s K-12 students, having clean air is just as important as having a great teacher, according to a growing body of research on air pollution from traffic, wildfire smoke and other sources that can infiltrate schools and endanger health.

Read the full report here

DEOHS Teaching Professor Martin Cohen How do you lead 20 students on a field trip during a pandemic?

Right now, some 140,000 agricultural workers are picking apples, peaches and other crops at the peak of Washington’s harvest season, just as Gov. Jay Inslee has declared a state of emergency in response to wildfires burning across the state.

After stay-at-home orders were issued in Washington state in response to the pandemic, some of the most harmful traffic-related air pollutants dropped significantly in Seattle, according to a research team led by the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS).

Dr. Austin received her Doctor of Science in Environmental Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, with concentrations in Exposure Assessment and Biostatistics.