The many accomplishments of MPH and DrPH students in Milken Institute School of Public Health’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health during Spring 2017 include getting published, visiting House of Representatives hearings and the White House, landing good jobs, and earning awards. MPH students also began interviewing EOH seminar speakers this term to produce post-seminar interviews. For a complete list of all of the culminating experiences presented by MPH students this spring on topics including the impacts of exposure to nanoparticles and nanomaterials, household air pollution in both the developed and developing worlds, extreme heat and birth defects, and both good and bad bacteria, go to the end of this article.
MPH Student Awards, Influence, and a Publication
At the Milken Institute School of Public Health Ceremony, Interim EOH Chair George Gray presented MPH student Brenda Trejo with the Chair’s Award for the Global Environmental Health (GEH) program. MPH student Ans Irfan received the Chair’s Award for the Environmental Health Science and Policy (EHS&P) program, and he was also inducted into the Delta Omega Honorary society that recognizes students poised to make outstanding achievements in the field of public health. Nathan McCray received the Outstanding CE Award for Environmental Health Science and Policy, and Joel Wenger received the Outstanding CE Award for Global Environmental Health. (Keep reading for a complete list of CEs presented in Spring 2017.)
EHS&P student Emma Sullivan was a member of the GW team that earned a top $5000 award from the nonprofit One Health Day organization for events held last November. Sullivan helped to plan and coordinate the event, which included an hour-long talk by Associate Professor Peter LaPuma on the health impacts of climate change and a panel discussion on antimicrobial resistance featuring Professor Lance Price.
Irfan, Trejo, and Environmental Health Science & Policy MPH student El’gin Avila joined other public health, environmental health, toxicology, epidemiology, medicine and science students from across the U.S. to sign a statement of action calling for greater action on environmental public health published in Scientific American. "The environment shapes millions of lives all across America," the authors of the statement wrote. "As trivial party politics obstruct urgently needed action on environmental health, real people experience real consequences. Health is a human right, not a partisan issue."
Irfan also succeeded in getting some of the research he conducted during his practicum at Environmental Health Analytics published. Trejo’s accomplishments also include being tapped to be up on on the stage during the Closing Keynote featuring Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood during GW’s National Public Health Week celebration this year.
MPH Students Out and About in DC
EOH students regularly capitalize on the wide range of opportunities available to them while studying in the nation’s capital, where we are often only a subway stop or two away from history in the making. A major recent opportunity arose when Professor David Michaels recently visited the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) as part of a delegation discussing the potential impacts of a proposed change to an occupational standard. He invited two EOH students to join him. EHS&P MPH student Ans Irfan and GEH MPH student Brenda Trejo leapt at the opportunity.
Another example of the kind of opportunities that EOH students regularly take advantage of is the decision by EHS&P MPH student Lucy Brainerd to attend a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Science Committee titled “Making EPA Great Again.” She was both able to fulfill a requirement for her Management & Policy Approaches to Public Health (PubH 6006) class, and she also credits it for inspiring the topic for a policy memo assignment for the class.
GEH MPH student Joel Wenger, also studying to be a physician’s assistant in the school’s joint MPH/PA program, completed his practicum at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)’s DC Headquarters, where he worked to inform the guidelines for mercury and simultaneously improved his Spanish.
MPH Students in Action At GW
Back on GW’s Foggy Bottom campus, a record number of EOH students and staff presented posters at GW’s 2017 Health and Medicine Research Day. Altogether, the work of 34 students, staff and faculty members was represented in 25 posters displayed at the event, which is dedicated to highlighting the breadth of research on issues of major disciplinary, multidisciplinary, and global significance being done at the George Washington University.
Several MPH students also helped inaugurate Post-Seminar Interviews of experts who present their research at EOH seminars. After GW EOH Assistant Professor Amanda Northcross’s seminar on her recent work helping residents in Leandrinho, Brazil, monitor pollution, EHS&P student El'gin Avila questioned her about the role that social justice plays in her research.
EHS&P MPH student Brianna VanNoy interviewed GW Assistant Professor Ami Zota after her seminar on the emerging evidence resulting from her research suggesting that socially marginalized populations, such as women of color, may be more susceptible to environmental chemical exposures.
A third Post-Seminar Interview took place after Army Lieutenant Colonel Victor Suarez, who has been embedded in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health (EOH) as a U.S. Army War College Fellow this year, gave a talk titled “Optimizing Health Readiness of the Force Requires an Effective, Relevant, and Modern Strategy.” EHS&P student Pei-Ying Chang spoke with LTC Suarez about a number of the important points he raised in the seminar.
DrPH Achievements and Jobs
Two DrPH students successfully defended their DrPH dissertations in Spring 2017: Parisa Karimi (“The Association Between Pesticides and Diabetes Mellitus Among Adults and Pregnant Women”) and Jessica Kratchman ( “Predicting Chronic Non-Cancer Toxicity Levels from Short-Term Toxicity Data”). “Jessica and Parisa are pursuing important environmental public health research,” says Interim EOH Chair George Gray.
DrPH student Francesca Branch is currently working as an epidemiologist at the EPA in the Risk Assessment Division (RAD) of the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT). She is leading RAD’s data gathering and systematic review team, which is supporting all the SR work for the first 10 chemicals being evaluated in the existing chemicals program under the amended Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). She is also the epidemiologist assigned to 2 of the 10 existing chemicals: asbestos and perchloroethylene. In this role, she assists in identifying and reviewing studies to measure the effects of chemical exposure in human populations, specifically by reviewing and synthesizing epidemiologic data and literature as it relates to toxic chemicals. She makes recommendations to team members, and helps relate epidemiological results and findings to the risk assessors and risk managers.
DrPH student Parisa Karimi recently received a fellowship from the Cancer Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG) of the National Institute of Cancer (NCI). As an NCI fellow, she received required support to design and conduct epidemiologic studies to examine the role of environmental factors in the etiology of gastric cancer and lymphoma.
DrPH student Suril Mehta is currently working as an epidemiologist and health scientist at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, NC. He is in the Office of the Report on Carcinogens within the National Toxicology Program, and he conducts hazard evaluations on substances or exposures that may be carcinogenic to humans for the congressionally-mandated Report on Carcinogens.
Culminating Experiences Presented in Spring 2017
MPH students presented a record number of culminating experiences this spring, including 18 students who were enrolled in Professor Lance Price's Culminating Experience class in Spring 2017.
Environmental Health Science & Policy Culminating Experience Presentations
- EHS&P MPH Candidate El’gin Avila presented “Systematic Review of Associations Between Particulate Matter (PM2.5 PM10) and Cancer Risk”
- EHS&P MPH Candidate Nicole Chavis presented “Early-life Phytoestrogen Exposure and the Risk of Uterine Fibroids in Premenopausal Women: A Systematic Review”
- EHS&P MPH Candidate Lisa Chuong presented “Evaluating strain variations in Clostridium difficile infections (CDI): A Systematic Review”
- EHS&P MPH Candidate Melinda Hoang presented “The Effect of Anatase Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles via Intranasal Instillation on Oxidative Stress in Mice Brain: A Systematic Review”
- EHS&P MPH Candidate Ans Irfan presented “Climate Change, Natural Disasters, and Suicide: A Systematic Review”
- EHS&P MPH Candidate Alex Lan presented “Pathogen Infections and Type 1 Diabetes: A Systematic Review”
- EHS&P MPH Candidate Tina Pham presented “Occupational Exposure to Cleaning Products and Asthma Risk in Healthcare Workers and Professional Cleaners: A Systematic Review”
- EHS&P MPH Candidate Matthew Wright presented “Evaluation of Exposure Assessment Methods Used to Quantify Occupational Exposure to Carbon Nanomaterials: A Systematic Review”
Global Environmental Health Culminating Experience Presentations
- GEH MPH Candidate Julianna Betbeze presented “Household Air Pollution from Unimproved Cookstoves and the Risk of Elevated Blood Pressure in Adults: A Systematic Review”
- GEH MPH Candidate Kristen Elmore presented “Native American Children with Asthma or Respiratory-Related Illness and Exposure to Household Air Pollution in North America: A Systematic Review”
- GEH PA/MPH Christine Guppenberger presented “Do healthy guts grow healthier children? A review of environmental enteropathy”
- GEH MPH/Physician’s Assistant Candidate James Hughes presented “Climate & Vector-Borne Disease: A systematic review with a focus on Dengue, Yellow Fever, Chikungunya & Zika”
- GEH MPH Candidate Olivia Koeppel presented “Impact of Green Space Access and Exposure on Depression: A Systematic Review”
- GEH MPH/Physician’s Assistant Candidate Leeann Kuehn presented “Extreme Heat Exposure and Adverse Birth Outcomes: A Systematic Review”
- GEH PA/MPH Kelly Protzko presented “Lead Exposures from Traditional Eye Cosmetics among Vulnerable Populations: A Systematic Review”
- GEH MPH Candidate Laura Seal presented “The efficacy of household water treatment (HHWT) in reducing water-borne disease in complex emergency settings: A systematic review”
- GEH MPH Candidate Brenda Trejo presented “Agricultural Pesticide Exposure and Congenital Abnormalities in Mexico: A Systematic Review”
- GEH MPH Candidate Josiane Tossa presented “The Effects of Solar Disinfection on Childhood Diarrhea Rates in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review”
- GEH MPH/Physician’s Assistant Candidate Lindsay Weyand presented “Compounded Trauma: Gender-Based Violence and Natural Disasters”