Environmental Health

Dr. Russ Castner is helping to improve human health—one graduate student at a time. The retired Shoreline dentist never got the chance to use the environmental health degree he earned as one of the first graduates of the UW School of Public Health.

Nothing about Lake Killarney’s idyllic appearance hints at the potential cancer risk lying below the surface. The shallow lake in South King County, Washington, is ringed with homes and the headquarters of the international relief organization World Vision. The lake is favored by waterfowl, rich with aquatic plants and stocked with rainbow trout, largemouth bass and other fish.

Graeme Carvlin PhD, Environmental and Occupational Hygiene Hometown Flemington, NJ

I see toxic chemicals everywhere.

“Growing up in Wenatchee, WA, I was exposed to a lot of agricultural workers. Learning about how the environment affects people’s health—and realizing that many people I knew growing up were exposed to health risks—really hooked me on environmental health.”

Research with real-world impact: DEOHS student’s work leads to environmental recommendations to create cleaner waterways.

Magali Blanco received her PhD in environmental health and MS in occupational and environmental exposure science from the University of Washington, and a BA in biology from Lewis & Clark College. Blanco’s research applies quantitative, data-driven methods to study how environmental exposures affect health.

Dr. Flunker is an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Iowa, College of Public Health. He holds a PhD in epidemiology and biostatistics and an MPH in environmental health, both from the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health at the University of Kentucky. Dr.

Dr. Fellows is an environmental scientist for the Hazardous Waste Management Program at Public Health - Seattle & King County, where she focuses on Safer Alternatives. Her research interests include alternatives assessments, climate change impacts on human health, geospatial analysis, pesticides, and lead in consumer products.

John Ji is an environmental epidemiologist researching the intersection of human health, environmental challenges and climate change. Ji has explored how exposures such as air pollution, urban green spaces and extreme heat affect public health, with a particular emphasis on the elderly and vulnerable populations.

Marissa Childs's research explores how large-scale environmental changes — like climate change and land use change — affect human health. Her work uses remote sensing and modeling to quantify nonlinear and context-dependent effects of environmental change.

Christine Loftus is an environmental epidemiologist with over 15 years of research experience in prenatal and early-life exposures to chemical and nonchemical stressors associated with child health trajectories. She also studies the factors that may modify these relationships, such as prenatal nutrition or psychosocial stress.

Jamie Donatuto is an environmental social scientist who has had the honor to work with communities, particularly Indigenous communities, for more than two decades.

Dr. Tzu-Hsin Karen Chen is an assistant professor in DEOHS, the Department of Urban Design and Planning, and the Data Science program. She studies large-scale urban environmental change and its implications for public health and health inequality.

Dr Chan is a Professor and Research Chair in Toxicology and Environmental Health at the University of Ottawa in Canada.

Gregory Bratman is the director of the Environment and Well-Being Lab in the Environmental and Forest Sciences and an Assistant Professor in the UW College of the Environment, in addition to being an Adjunct Assistant Professor with DEOHS.

Dr. Yijie Geng is Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington School of Public Health. He received his BS in biological sciences and bioengineering from Tsinghua University and his PhD in cell and developmental biology from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Joan A. Casey received her doctoral degree from the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2014. Dr. Casey is an environmental epidemiologist who focuses on environmental health, environmental justice, and sustainability.

Resham Patel is an assistant teaching professor at the University of Washington, with 15 years of local and national experience as a public health professional. She serves as the Director of Practitioner Engagement for the UW Center for Disaster Resilient Communities (CDRC).

Dr. Diana Ceballos is an assistant professor in the University of Washington Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences. Her life’s passion is to address health disparities by identifying environmental factors that cause disease, injury or impairment.

Dr. Erica Fuhrmeister is Assistant Professor in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences. She received her BS in environmental engineering from Johns Hopkins University and her MS and PhD in environmental engineering from University of California, Berkeley.

Esther Min (she/her) is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Washington. She is also part of the Northwest Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU).

Dr. Burkhart is a geographer and climate scientist and is an Assistant Professor of Health Metrics Sciences at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. In this role, she works on the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) project, conducting research on environmental risks and methods to include exposure to suboptimal temperature. Dr.

Dr. Julianne Meisner is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) and an Assistant Professor in the UW Department of Global Health. A veterinarian with a PhD in Epidemiology, Dr. Meisner’s research interests focus on the intersection of human, animal and environmental health. 

Emily Hovis is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences. She is an environmental health professional with experience in public education, food safety and environmental compliance.

Cynthia L. Curl, MS, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Community and Environmental Health at Boise State University, where she studies the intersection between agricultural production and human health and directs the Curl Agricultural Health Lab.

Dr. Judit Marsillach is Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington School of Public Health. In May 2021, she was appointed as the Sheldon D. Murphy Endowed Chair in Toxicology and Environmental Health.

Karen Levy is Professor in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS). She studies the ecology and epidemiology of environmentally-mediated infectious diseases.

Dr. Sarah Collier is an Assistant Professor in Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and core faculty in the Food Systems, Nutrition, and Health Program.