Health Equity

There is a hidden cost to the fresh fruits and vegetables you buy at your local market.

“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.”

Dr. Tzu-Hsin Karen Chen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban Design and Planning and the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington, where she is also affiliated with the Data Science program. As a geographer, Dr. Chen finds great interest in the synergy of machine learning and satellite imagery analysis.

Dr. de Castro’s research focuses on population health inequities and inequalities by examining how employment opportunities, job conditions, and work organization contribute to chronic stress and occupational injury and illness risk; utilizing longitudinal analyses, biomarkers, large survey datasets, and engagement with minoritized groups.

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 in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington, with 15 years of local and national experience as a public health professional.

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. Rachel M. Shaffer works on chemical assessments in the Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment in the U.S. EPA’s Office of Research and Development. Dr. Shaffer has a broad background in environmental health sciences, with graduate training spanning experimental toxicology and human epidemiological research as well as experience in science policy and risk assessment.

What would it look like to equitably nourish a growing global population? More importantly, how do we get there – which inputs have more leverage within complex systems, and what evidence do decision-makers need in order to support public health? Dr.

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. Peckham is an environmental scientist in the Hazardous Waste Management Program in the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks, where he designs and conducts environmental and occupational health research to help reduce toxic exposures to workers and residents of King County. Dr. Peckham earned his PhD, MS and MPA from the University of Washington.  

Dr. Meghan McGinty is passionate about building the capacity of public health and medical systems, as well as our communities to respond, recover and be resilient in the face of disasters She is also deeply committed to ensuring that we have a competent public health workforce.

Sheldwin earned a doctorate degree in Exposure Science and a MS degree in Epidemiology at the University of Washington School of Public Health; prior he also received a MPH at the University of New Mexico School of

Michele Andrasik is a clinical health psychologist.

Anne M. Riederer, MS, MSFS, ScD is an environmental health scientist focused on assessing exposures of young children and pregnant women to heavy metals, pesticides, and other environmental neurotoxicants. Before moving to Seattle, she was: American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow (2010-2012) hosted by Dr.

Marguerite Pappaioanou, DVM, MPVM, PhD, is an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she contributes to the research, teaching, and outreach programs of the Center for One Health Research.

Dr. Grace Lasker is Teaching Professor with the Nursing & Health Studies department at the University of Washington Bothell. She was formerly tenured faculty and director of the BS in Public Health at Lake Washington Institute of Technology, where she taught courses in environmental health, epidemiology, nutrition, cellular biology and chemistry.

For 33 years Professor Emeritus John Garland worked at Oregon State University as Timber Harvesting Extension Specialist bringing new technologies, conducting research and providing educational programs and publications to Oregon’s forestry sector. He continues his OSU research on operators in steep slope logging.

Andrew L. Dannenberg, MD, MPH, is an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences and in the Department of Urban Design and Planning at the University of Washington, where he teaches courses on health and built environment and on health impact assessment.

Dr. Takaro is a physician-scientist trained at the University of Washington, Occupational and Environmental Medicine Program. His work is directed primarily toward determining if linkages exist between occupational or environmental exposures and disease and finding public health based preventive solutions where such hazards exist.

My role as Clinical Assistant Professor includes research and teaching in areas such as chemically related illness (CRI), Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome (MCS), brain single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) in patients with cognitive complaints, evaluation of permanent impairment, prevention of long-term disability, management of chronic pain, treatment with opioids, and other

Rod Hoff is working with faculty to expand the UW School of Public Health's research and training programs on emerging infectious diseases and on building capacity for global health security. He gives guest lectures courses of Dr Cangelosi.

Dr. Pooja Tandon is a pediatrician and researcher at the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children’s Research Institute and Assistant Professor at the University of Washington.  Dr.

Dr. Sears specializes in occupational health services research, and in program and policy evaluation. She is Co-Director of the Occupational Health Services Research training program, which is part of the Northwest Center for Occupational Health and Safety, a NIOSH-funded Education and Research Center (ERC).

Alison Cullen joined the Evans School faculty at University of Washington in 1995. Her research involves the analysis of risks to human health and the environment, decision making in the face of risks which are uncertain or vary across populations, and the application of value of information and distributional techniques. 

David Beck is Director of Research for Life Sciences with the eScience Institute, the UW’s nexus for Data Science and Research Assistant Professor in Chemical Engineering. He received his BS in Computer Science from Drexel University in 2000 and Ph.D. from the University of Washington in Biomolecular Structure & Design from Medicinal Chemistry in 2006.

Dr. van Belle holds a joint appointment in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and the Department Biostatistics. He served as chair of the former from 1991 to 1998 at which time he returned to regular faculty status.

The general area of my teaching and research involves the applied aspects of environmental health practice, i.e., how the principles and concepts of environmental health are actually practiced in the field, especially by local, state, tribal and federal agencies.

Dr. Kissel has a history of research related to human exposure to environmental contaminants. One aspect of this work involves characterization of human dermal contact with soils and sediments.

David Kalman is a professor in the Environmental Health program. He is a chemist by training, earning his doctorate from the University of Washington in 1978. He joined the faculty in that year and has held numerous positions including director of the Environmental Health Laboratory and director of one graduate degree program and (currently) director of undergraduate degree education.