Environmental Epidemiology and Population Health (EEPH) RIG Members

Gregory Barnes MD, PhD

Environmental Epidemiology and Population Health Research Interest Group Leader
Professor
Department of Neurology
Director, University of Louisville Autism Center
Barnes has research interest in Autism, Epilepsy, Genetics, Neuropharmacology

Mikus Abolins-Abols, PhD

Assistant Professor
Department of Biology
Abolins-Abols studies the physiological mechanisms that underlie stress response in wild birds. Abolins-Abols is particularly interested in how urban environment affects the health, stress, and reproductive function of native songbirds, and whether wild species can serve as bioindicators for urban pollution exposure. Other study interests are the cellular and genetic mechanisms that underlie feather color diversity and neural mechanisms that underlie behavioral diversity.

Craig Anthony (Tony) Arnold

Boehl Chair in Property and Land Use
Professor of Law
Affiliated Professor of Urban and Public Affairs
Director of the Resilience Justice Project
Louis D. Brandeis School of Law

Becky Antle, PhD, MSSW, LMFT

Professor
Kent School of Social Work
University Scholar
Director, Center for Family and Community Well-Being
Antle’s research interests center around implementation science across a broad range of substantive areas, as well as a specific focus on family relationships including child welfare, interpersonal violence, relationship education, and the impact of medical and mental health issues on the family.

Aruni Bhatnagar, PhD, FAHA

Professor
Department of Medicine
Smith and Lucille Gibson Professor of Medicine
Chief, Division of Environmental Medicine
Director, Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute/American Heart Association Tobacco Regulation Center
Distinguished University Scholar
The major focus of our research is to elucidate the mechanisms by which oxidative stress affects cardiovascular function. In particular, we are interested in the role of lipid peroxidation as a contributor to myocardial ischemic injury and atherosclerosis. In addition to the metabolism and detoxification of endogenous aldehydes, our research interests also include cardiovascular toxicity of environmental aldehydes.

Dwayne Compton, EdD, MEd

Chief Diversity Officer
Associate Dean, Community Engagement & Diversity
Compton's research interests are establishing, implementing, and assessing community engagement & programs throughout the school and local community. 

Natasha DeJarnett, PhD, MPH

Assistant Professor
Department of Medicine, Division of Environmental Medicine
Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute
DeJarnett (she/her) has research interests including the cardiovascular health burden of extreme heat exposure, air quality, and environmental health disparities. In addition, DeJarnett is passionate about environmental health research that informs policies and empowering communities through research engagement.

Lesley Harris, MSW, PhD

Associate Professor
Kent School of Social Work
Harris's research interests are to improve and extend intervention strategies for older adults who have been impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Luz Huntingon-Moskos, PhD, RN, CPN

Assistant Professor
School of Nursing
My program of research is focused on adolescent health and the interplay among health behaviors, environmental exposures, and genomics. Using biobehavioral methods and environmental home testing, my long-term goal is to develop an independent program of research focused on the implementation of report-back strategies with adolescents to prevent asthma exacerbations and support asthma self-management.

Andrew Mehring, PhD

Assistant Professor
Department of Biology
University of Louisville
Mehring’s research interests related to environmental health science include the management of urban heavy metal pollution, and the redesign of urban and peri-urban environments to enhance net carbon storage and improve human health and ecosystem integrity. More specifically, Mehring studies the impacts of heavy metal pollution on soil invertebrate community structure, how human activity and land use alter the movement and accumulation of heavy metals in urban and non-urban ecosystems, and the roles of animal and plant communities in altering the flux of heavy metals. This includes the use of natural treatment systems (i.e., biofilters and swales, rain gardens, constructed wetlands) to intercept and trap heavy metals. Mehring’s investigations of carbon sequestration center on the use of trees and wetlands to store atmospheric carbon, which provides numerous co-benefits for the mental and physical wellbeing of human communities.

Long Nguyen, PhD

Assistant Professor
Computer Science and Engineering
Speed School of Engineering
Nguyen's research focuses on data mining, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI) with applications in climate change resilience and health intelligence. Some specific areas include but are not limited to natural language processing,  computer vision, time-series analysis, and anomaly detection. Nguyen enjoys advancing AI techniques and turning science to benefit community at large. Example applications are developing models and algorithms that incorporate community knowledge for disaster event causality, strategic planning, or preventive healthcare like early detection and monitoring of patient health.

Kenneth Palmer, PhD

Professor
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Director, Center for Predictive Medicine for Biodefence and Emerging Infectious Diseases
Palmer’s primary research interests are in infectious disease, and Palmer has an evolving interest in understanding how environmental pollutants and climate change impact modify the pathogenesis serious infectious disease. Over the past three years, Palmer has made investments in equipment and infrastructure to facilitate studies of how toxicants such as alcohol and common environmental pollutants affect infectious diseases.

Megan Poole, PhD

Assistant Professor
Department of English
College of Arts & Sciences
Poole’s research and teaching interests center on rhetorics of science, feminist science studies, and community-engaged work in technical and environmental health literacy communication. 

Sanjay Srivastava, PhD, FAHA

Professor of Medicine
Distinguished University Scholar
Core Director, Pathology and Bioanalytics
Srivastava research interest consists of Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Atherosclerosis; Effects of New and Emerging Tobacco Products on Vascular Toxicity and Inflammation; Cardiometabolic Toxicity of Volatile Organic Compounds.

Janice E. Sullivan, MD

Professor
Department of Pediatrics
Vice Chair for Research
Janice Sullivan joined the Department of Pediatrics in July of 1995. She is a Professor of Pediatrics in the Divisions of Pediatric Critical Care and Clinical & Translational Research. She is the Assistant Chief Scientific Officer in the newly formed Norton Children’s Research Institute, a joint collaboration with the integration of clinical research within the University of Louisville Department of Pediatrics and Norton Healthcare. She graduated from the University of Minnesota School of Medicine in 1988 and completed her Pediatric residency at Arkansas Children's Hospital in 1991. She completed a fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care and Clinical Pharmacology at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. She is board certified in Pediatrics, Pediatric Critical Care, and Clinical Pharmacology. Currently she is the Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Pediatrics. She also is a co-I with Sara Watson and Lori Devlin for the NIH funded IDeA State Grant as 1 of 18 sites which is primarily dedicated to reaching the rural and underserved populations for clinical trials in 5 specific focus areas related to environmental influences on child health. Her research is primarily in clinical trials for pediatric patients that involves medications to treat different disease entities in both inpatients and outpatients. Her other main focus is faculty education in clinical research and mentoring to train the next generation of clinical scientists.

Ray A. Yeager, PhD, MPH

Assistant Professor
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
Yeager is an active collaborator on the Green Heart Louisville project, University of Louisville Superfund Research Center projects, and the Louisville Healthy Heart Study. The overarching goal of his research is to identify and create a better understanding of environmental factors affecting cardiovascular risk, particularly greenness and air pollutants, that enables high-impact and translatable research to further the NIH mission. Yeager oversees collection, storage, analysis, and interpretation of all geographically-linked information at the Envirome Institute. This includes geographic data analysis methods of geocoded participant records, assessment of geophysical characteristics, characterization of environmental exposures, and development of visual representations of geographic information. He has over 12 years of professional and academic experience in geographic analysis, data management, and environmental research.

Charlie H. Zhang, PhD

Professor
Department of Geographic & Environmental Sciences
Zhang is a population and health geographer with research interests in neighborhood demographics and health disparities. In particular, Zhang's expertise is in applying geographic information system (GIS) and spatial statistical methods to the analysis of the linkages between environmental risk factors and public health problems.