This month, students and staff from the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) are being honored by the department and the UW School of Public Health (SPH) for their contributions to scientific research, education and community service.
Gilbert S. Omenn Award for Academic Excellence, master’s level (SPH)
Annie Doubleday is an MPH student who has worked on several projects related to disaster response and climate impacts, including research on wildfire smoke associated with health effects. She has presented at several conferences at the state and national levels and also serves as a teaching assistant.
Magnuson Scholar (SPH)
Joseph Dempsey is a PhD student in Environmental Toxicology who is exploring the gut microbiome to understand how this highly complex ecosystem shapes human health and disease and how early exposure to environmental toxicants and drugs might alter the gut microbiome and impact health later in life.
Outstanding PhD student (DEOHS)
Kholood Altassan is a PhD student in Environmental and Occupational Hygiene whose research focuses on climate, migration and dengue fever in her native Saudi Arabia. She is also an educator and guest lecturer when in the Middle East and has been appointed assistant professor at King Saud University starting in fall 2019.
Outstanding Master’s student (DEOHS)
Kori VanDerGeest is an MPH student who has worked closely with stakeholders at the local and state levels as part of her safe water research. She has presented public comments to the Governor's Interagency Council on Health Disparities regarding nitrates in groundwater and has engaged well-water users, county officials, state officials, community organizers and researchers as part of her research to identify barriers to well-water testing.
Outstanding Undergraduate student (DEOHS)
Amanda Durkin is an Environmental Health major with a strong academic record who is also an athlete on the UW rowing team. In 2018, she served as an intern with Methow Valley Clean Air Project, where she collaborated with a community organization to educate residents about the impacts of poor air quality.
Distinguished staff award (DEOHS)
Kit Galvin is a research scientist with the Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center, part of DEOHS. Her research focuses on agricultural worker safety. Most recently, she led a team that developed a new mobile application called PestiSafe that delivers detailed pesticide safety information in Spanish and English.
Russell L. Castner Endowed Student Research Fund, PhD level (DEOHS)
Rebekah Petroff
Russell L. Castner Endowed Student Research Fund, Master’s level (DEOHS)
Alex Kossik
