Advisor: Dr. Susan Korrick | Program: EOME | Concentration: Environmental Epidemiology
– Q & A –
What is your background/experience prior to entering the program?
I earned a Master of Science in Environmental Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Following that, I worked as a research assistant at Boston Children’s Hospital and then Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute. During that time, my work focused on projects related to prenatal and early life environmental exposures, including residential wood stove pollution, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, traffic-related pollution, and child health. After assisting in analyzing environmental epidemiologic data and writing manuscripts for a few years, I was excited to enter the PhD program to build my skills and expertise in environmental and occupational epidemiology.
Why/how did you become interested in Occupational Health?
I first became interested in occupational health during a winter session course in Taiwan during the Master of Science program. We toured several factories and learned about their occupational health programs, met with representatives from the Taiwan EPA, and collaborated with students from Kaohsiung Medical University to give a group presentation on an occupational health issue. I then gained a greater interest in occupational health, particularly occupational epidemiology, as a PhD student in the Epidemiology of Environmental & Occupational Health Regulations course, which was taught by Dr. Greg Wagner and Dr. David Wegman. I enjoyed that course so much that I worked as a teaching fellow the following two years, where I continued to learn and help teach about an array of occupational exposures and related health outcomes.
What are your future career plans/goals?
I am an Environmental Epidemiology Staff Scientist in the Center for Interdisciplinary Population & Health Research at the MaineHealth Institute for Research. In the future, I hope to continue working on studies on the extent to which environmental chemical exposures impact health over the life course.