The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is please to announce the selection of 14 Junior Faculty into the JPB Environmental Health Fellowship Program.
February 15th, UPDATE:
Dr. Michael Garvey from the U.S Department of Energy, Dr. Veronica (Helms) Garrison from the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development and Dr. Lauren Gentile from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have joined Cohort III as Agency Fellows.
Established in 2014, The JPB Environmental Health (EH) Fellowship Program is funded by The JPB Foundation and administered at the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The Fellowship is an innovative approach to support junior faculty engaged in research on the combined influence of both the social and environmental determinants of health inequities in under-resourced communities. The Fellows work at academic institutions across the U.S and unlike other Fellowship Programs they stay at their own school but get together twice a year at two one-week long workshops.
Through a competitive multi-stage process a diverse group of 14 new junior faculty have been selected from institutions across the U.S. Over a 3.5-year period these new Fellows will receive funding between $125,000 – $250,000 as well as mentoring, training in proposal development, research methods, leadership and communications. With the addition of a third cohort the program now has a total of 41 Fellows who represent modern academic scholars who are dedicated to addressing critical societal environmental problems facing communities.
The new Fellows have been recognized for their expertise in varied topics, including water treatment and management, chemical environmental hazards, climate change, disaster response, social determinants of health, among many others.
“We are impressed with the potential as a compassionate scholars, and recognize the expertise, commitment, and enthusiasm towards addressing complex environmental health problems. We believe the Fellows of this new cohort will be generous colleagues, and we look forward to kicking off the program with all of them” said Prof. John Spengler, Director of the Program.
Program Accomplishments
The JPB Environmental Health Fellowship Program has the mission to train and support rigorous scholars who conduct work that both produces knowledge about the social and environmental factors that affect health and health equity, and solutions for increasing health equity. Since 2014, the JPB EH Fellows have undertaken more than 30 research projects relevant to under resourced populations in urban and rural communities across the U.S., with advancements on different topics such as chemicals and health, nature and health, access to nature, infrastructure inequities, energy insecurity, air pollution, stress and resilience, housing and health and indigenous public health practices. Nine Fellows have been promoted to Associate Professor, and two to Full Professors. The program has fostered cross disciplinary collaborations that include several research projects, publications, workshops, panels, and conferences. More than one hundred peer-reviewed papers were completed supported by JPB funds, and more than one hundred students have been involved in and supported by JPB EH Fellowship research. One Fellow has been appointed by the Biden Administration as a Deputy Director of Energy Justice in the Department of Energy.
Program Leadership
The Program leadership team at the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health includes John Spengler, Ph.D., Akira Yamaguchi Professor of Environmental Health and Human Habitation, Gary Adamkiewicz, Associate Professor of Environmental Health and Exposure Disparities, Laura Kubzansky, Lee Kum Kee Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Co-Director of the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness, and Marc G. Weisskopf, Cecil K. and Philip Drinker Professor of Environmental Epidemiology and Physiology. As Advisors, Allison Appleton, Associate Professor of Epidemiology & Biostatistics at the State University of New York at Albany, School of Public Health, and Diana Hernandez, Associate Professor of Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health (both Cohort I JPB EH Fellows) offer their valuable knowledge and expertise to develop the mission and the main goals of the Fellowship Program.
Cohort III: Harvard JPB Environmental Health Junior Faculty Fellows
- Katherine Alfredo, Assistant Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of South Florida, Tampa, FL - Michael Anastario, Assistant Professor
Department of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
at the Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work
Florida International University, Miami, FL - Max Aung, Assistant Professor
Division of Environmental Health at Keck School of Medicine
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA - Jose “Memo” Cedeno Laurent Assistant Professor
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and Justice
Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute
School of Public Health at Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ - MyDzung Chu, Assistant Professor
Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies
Tufts Medical Center and Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA - Stephanie Eick, Assistant Professor
Department of Environmental Health
Rollins School of Public Health
Emory University, Atlanta, GA - Betty Lin, Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology
University at Albany, State of New York, Albany, NY - Na’Taki Osborne Jelks Assistant Professor
Environmental & Health Sciences
Spelman College, Atlanta, GA - Courtney Roper, Assistant Professor
Environmental Toxicology, Department of BioMolecular Sciences
The University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS - Anais Roque, Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH - Leah Schinasi, Assistant Professor
Department Environmental and Occupational Health, Dornsife School of Public Health
Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA - Aaron Specht, Assistant Professor
School of Health Sciences
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN - Yoshira Van Horne, Assistant Professor
Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health
Columbia University, New York City, NY - Ruzmyn Vilcassim, Assistant Professor
School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences
University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL
Cohort III: Harvard JPB Environmental Health Agency Fellows
- Michael Garvey, Economist
Office of Energy Justice Policy & Analysis, Office of Economic Impact & Diversity
U.S. Department of Energy
Washington, DC - Veronica (Helms) Garrison, Social Science Analyst; Data Team Lead
Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R)
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Washington, DC - Lauren Gentile, Geographer
Office of Atmospheric Protection, Climate Change Division
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Washington, DC