Rebecca Parkin

Samar Ahmad

Rebecca Parkin

M.P.H., Ph.D.

Professorial Lecturer

Part-time Faculty


School: Milken Institute School of Public Health

Department: Environmental and Occupational Health

Contact:

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.


EDUCATION: 

Bachelor of Arts (Sociology), Cornell University, 1970

Master of Public Health (Environmental Health), Yale University, 1977

Doctor of Philosophy (Epidemiology), Yale University, 1982

Post-doctoral Fellowship, Yale University, National Cancer Institute (1982-83)

Mid-career Fellow in Science, Technology, and Policy, Princeton University (1993-94)

 

COMMUNITY SERVICE: 

The theme of service -- to the public, to students, to professional organizations and to communities -- runs through Dr. Parkin's career. In the field, she has worked with citizens wrestling with challenging environmental health issues, applying lessons learned in that capacity to her service on numerous boards and committees. Dr. Parkin has provided expertise primarily to the National Research Council, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Institute of Medicine, focusing her attention on drinking water contaminants, airborne particulates, microbial risk assessment, water conservation, and immunization safety, among other issues. As well, she has been the American Public Health Association's liaison to the National Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention. In the post-9/11 environment, Professor Parkin has served on the U.S. GAO's expert panel on wastewater security; the Oak Ridge Affiliated Universities' Weapons of Mass Destruction Interagency Event Team; and the Arlington, Virginia Division of Public Health's Emergency Preparedness Planning Committee.

INSTITUTES AND CENTERS: 

Center for Risk Science and Public Health

RESEARCH: 

Dr. Parkin's main research interests are environmental health risk perception and communication, environmental epidemiology, microbial risk assessment, drinking water contaminants, risk management and community-based research.