We’re happy to report some good news about jobs we learned about from alumni, as well as a recent award.
DrPH alumna Kelly Scanlon is the first author of “An approach to integrating occupational safety and health into life cycle assessment: Development and application of work environment characterization factors,” a paper published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology in 2015 that was recently honored by the journal as the “second best paper of 2015 in the senior author category.” Associate Professor Peter LaPuma is the paper’s senior author, and other coauthors are Professor and Interim Chair George Gray and Assistant Professor Royce Francis, who leads the School of Engineering and Applied Science’s SEED research group that focuses on Strategic [urban] Ecologies, Engineering, and Decision-making. “This paper demonstrates clearly and concisely how to bring workplace safety considerations to [life cycle assessment],” according to the journal’s editors.
Jobs
We always love hearing about what our alumni are up to, and here is some of the latest job news we’ve received:
Monique Baskin, who earned an Environmental Health Science & Policy (EHS&P) certificate at GW, is now a program manager at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Program Office, where she began as a 2016 Knauss Fellow. She manages the Arctic Research Program, which funds both academics and federal scientists as investigators for projects that fill the agency’s sustainable Arctic observations objective. She is also the Deputy Head of Delegation to the Arctic council’s Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP), where she is in charge of developing the communications platform and strategy, among other things. In fact, she was in Prague attending the Arctic Science Summit Week when she participated remotely in GW’s #ClimateChangesHealth event during this spring's National Public Health Week.
Melinda Hoang (EHS&P MPH '17) accepted a position in California as an Associate Health Scientist for Cardno ChemRisk and will be starting soon. We hope to tell you more about what she’s doing in our next newsletter!
Nathan McCray (EHS&P MPH '16) is now back at EOH, serving as a Research Associate for Assistant Professor Kate Applebaum on a study examining the Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) epidemic in Northwestern Nicaragua. CKD's rise in Nicaragua and other parts of Central America is unique and differs from much of the rest of the world in that it disproportionally affects younger men and those who are not obese, diabetic, or hypertensive. Dr. Applebaum's research team is examining environmental and occupational factors that may play a role in the development and advancement of the disease in studies of Nicaraguan sugarcane workers. Nathan is assisting the team in interpreting the Spanish to English translation of this data, preparing the data for analysis, analyzing it for associations, and reporting on the results as part of an emerging body of scientific literature on this topic.
Nick Porter (EHS&P MPH '16) is serving as an analyst for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. He recent organized and executed a meeting in Austin, TX for a meeting for leaders in environmental health at the state health department level in the State Environmental Health Directors (SEHDs) Peer Group. The topics of discussion included safe water, food safety, risk communication, and emerging contaminants (such as perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in drinking water). “The meeting is a place for the states and territories to discuss these issues and share with their peers the work they have done around these topics in the past year. Also in attendance are leadership and staff from CDC, EPA, and various NGO partner organizations,” Nick says.
We invite you to send updates about your latest achievements or employment to [email protected].