Rebecca Parkin

Rebecca Tyrrell Parkin (formerly Zagraniski) is a Professorial Lecturer in the Environmental & Occupational Health Department.

Rebecca T. Parkin, PhD, MPH, is an environmental epidemiologist with over 30 years of career experience; she is now a Professorial Lecturer in Environmental and Occupational Health and in Epidemiology and Biostatistics Departments in the Milken Institute School of Public Health of The George Washington University (GW).

She occasionally serves as a public health consultant to federal agencies and local governments. She retired from fulltime work as the Associate Dean for Research and Public Health Practice and as a Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, with a joint appointment in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Dr. Parkin was also the Scientific Director of the Center for Risk Science and Public Health at GW. Previously she served as the Assistant Commissioner of Occupational and Environmental Health in the New Jersey Department of Health and as an Environmental Epidemiologist in the Centers for Disease Control.

Rebecca received her A.B. in sociology from Cornell University; M.P.H. (environmental health) and Ph.D. (epidemiology) from Yale University; and Certificate in Science, Technology, and Policy from Princeton University. Her areas of expertise include environmental epidemiology, public health policy, and environmental health risk assessment and risk/benefit communication. Her research has been supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; the American Water Works Association Research Foundation; the Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics; and the U.S.Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services.

She has been a member of the National Research Council (NRC)’s Water Science and Technology Board, the National Institute of Health’s Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Science Advisory Board and Human Studies Review Board, for which she is currently serving as chair. Dr. Parkin has served on and been chair or vice chair of committees of the NRC, the Institute of Medicine, EPA, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Additionally, Dr. Parkin has served as a peer reviewer for various national and international professional organizations and journals focused on environmental health. She has represented U.S. public health scientists at international forums and workshops hosted by the National Academies, World Health Organization, professional societies, and academic institutions. Further, she has taught environmental and occupational health courses at several universities outside of the U.S. Among her many awards, Dr. Parkin has been elected to Delta Omega (public health honorary society), recognized by Yale University as a Distinguished Alumna, honored with the Association of Schools of Public Health/Pfizer Faculty Award for Excellence in Academic Public Health Practice and selected for lifetime membership as a National Associate of the National Academies.