Edward Kasner, PhD, MPH, CSP
About
Dr. Kasner is an Assistant Teaching Professor with a research focus on leveraging technology to prevent injury and illness among working populations. He has conducted exposure assessments in the United States and China; led occupational epidemiology studies through the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; and sat on state advisory panels addressing pesticides, wildfire smoke, and heat-related illness. As Outreach Director at the Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health (PNASH) Center, he leads strategic planning and partnership with the agriculture, forestry, and fishing industries. Dr. Kasner and his colleagues strive to apply the principles of community engagement and reproducible research to iteratively co-develop practical solutions for safety and health in the workplace.
Education
- PhD, University of Washington
- MPH, University of Minnesota
- BA, Saint John's University
Affiliations
Outreach Director, Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health CenterMentorship
Available to mentor Master's students in Autumn 2026. Please follow the instructions on the How To Apply page.
DEOHS Students Mentored
Chemical Safety and Safety Resilience in a Global Cruise Operation: An Internship with Holland America Line
Elijah Morales | MS Applied | 2025 | View
PFAS and Fish Consumption: A Review of Blood PFAS Concentrations and Public Health Guidelines
Phoebe Nadeau | MS Applied | 2025 | View
Developing and Validating a Framework for Estimating Pesticide Use in Washington State
Catherine Jennifer | MS Thesis | 2025 | View
PFD Safety in the High-Hazard Commercial Fishing Industry: An Exploration of Safety Policies for Workers at Sea
Grace Price | MS Applied | 2024 | View
From Roe to Reel: A lifecycle analysis of hatchery salmon and building a culture around health and safety at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW)
Orhan Eribac | MS Applied | 2024 | View
Research
Occupational safety and health, with a focus on precision agriculture. Worker-driven solutions for pesticide exposure, wildfire smoke, heat stress, and workplace injuries. Leveraging technology to prevent injury and illness in working populations. Community engagement and reproducible research. Strategic industry partnerships in agriculture, forestry, and fishing. Exposure assessment and epidemiology in work environments.
Air Quality and Wildfire Smoke. The Smoke Monitoring for Agricultural Safety and Health (SMASH) project implements real-time air monitoring and protective strategies to minimize smoke exposure among outdoor workers in rural Washington. We support rural workplaces by developing tailored safety measures for current and predicted conditions, including heat-related illness.
Pesticide Exposure and Drift Prevention. The Sprayer Technology Adoption and Related Skills (STARS) project evaluates new pesticide application technologies and training programs to reduce exposure risks in Northwest fruit farming. Farmworkers and their families face heightened risks from pesticide handling, drift, and take-home exposures. Our work supports safer application methods, worker education, and adoption of advanced sprayer technologies to mitigate risks. We collaborate with regulatory agencies, grower organizations, and industry partners to inform best practices in precision agriculture. See also: Prevention of Occupational Exposure to Pesticide Drift.
Fishing Safety and Lifejacket Adoption. Falls overboard and vessel disasters are the leading causes of death in commercial fishing. We work with fishing communities in Washington and Oregon to increase lifejacket use, improve vessel stability training, and enhance emergency preparedness. Our Fishermen Led Injury Prevention Program (FLIPP) for Lifejackets Mobile Program provides education, trials, and discounts to encourage adoption and address barriers such as comfort and fit.
Forestry and Logging Safety. Logging remains one of the most hazardous industries, with risks including falls, struck-by incidents, equipment failures, and extreme weather conditions. Our research, informed by industry collaboration, aims to reduce injuries and fatalities by promoting safer work practices, improved equipment, and updated training programs in Northwest Forest Worker Safety.
Training Based on Occupational Health Injury and Illness Trends. Our research supports workforce training through partnerships like the Agricultural Leadership Program, Washington’s Pesticide Advisory Board, and the NORA Sector Council for Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing. We analyze publicly-available workplace illness and injury data to identify trends, inform interventions, and guide safety for farming, fishing, and forestry workers. See Tracking Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Health Indicators.
Publications
Selected publications
- Wildfire Smoke Monitoring for Agricultural Safety and Health in Rural Washington
- Potential Impacts of Different Occupational Outdoor Heat Exposure Thresholds among Washington State Crop and Construction Workers and Implications for Other Jurisdictions
- Wildfire, Smoke Exposure, Human Health, and Environmental Justice Need to be Integrated into Forest Restoration and Management
- Potential impacts of Washington State’s wildfire worker protection rule on construction workers
- Examining the Role of Wind in Human Illness due to Pesticide Drift in Washington State, 2000–2015
Engagement
Equity, diversity and inclusion
My research interest focuses on leveraging technology to prevent injuries and illnesses among working populations. Much of this takes place in remote areas where our nation’s food, fiber and fuel are produced. My colleagues and I work in partnership with marginalized workers, employers and their communities to understand inequitable disease burden and identify solutions. As a beneficiary of my positionality throughout my career journey, I aim to empower students and overlooked workers to view themselves as experts. I believe that solving the most pressing environmental and occupational health issues of our time will require the tools of team science, reproducible research, and community engagement. To match my values with action, I try to use my position for equitable change within myself (unlearning personal biases, anti-racism training), my teaching (evidence-based teaching, centering diversity in scholarship) and my research (recruitment, amplifying lived experience behind data points).
Community and research partnerships
As the Outreach Director for the Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health (PNASH) Center, I work with a large team to support research translation, needs assessment and communications for hazards in the farming, forestry and fishing industries. PNASH conducts field-based research and engages a variety of partners, including farmers, managers, loggers, fishers, farmworkers, trade associations, labor organizations, extension agents and community health providers. We view our partners as experts in the co-development of solutions to reduce the burden of health and safety risks in the workplace. As researchers, we have the capacity to enter and exit communities and carry the responsibility of sustaining this work beyond funding cycles.
Teaching practices
Modern equitable science education to me means "weeding in" rather than "weeding out." I believe in learning outside the classroom and strive to foster a student-centered environment that celebrates diversity and inclusion. In the classroom, I utilize active learning, backward design, small-scale reproducible activities, live polling, discussion breakout guides and peer-reviewed assignments. My intention is to help students find their own voices by synthesizing information, asking questions and collaboratively seeking solutions to modern environmental and occupational health challenges. My goal is to help students develop skillsets to close existing gaps between the scientific process and community priorities.
Service
DEOHS Peer Teaching Evaluation Committee
DEOHS PhD Exam Committee
DEOHS Undergraduate Occupational Health & Safety Curriculum Task Force
DEOHS Curriculum Committee
SPH AI Task Force
UW Coders Community of Practice
Agricultural Leadership Program Advisory Board (WSDA, WA State Tree Fruit Assoc, WSU)
Pesticide Application Safety Committee (WA State Legislature)
WSDA Pesticide Advisory Board (WA State Legislature)