Alumni Profiles
Alumni Profiles Heading link
Stephanie DeFlorio-Barker, PhD in Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology ’15, MPH in Epidemiology ’10, is an epidemiologist at the Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where she focuses on investigating the relationship between human health and environmental pollution. Her findings are used to recommend air pollution standards for National Ambient Air Quality Standards air pollutants.
Judith Graber, PhD in Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences ’12, MS ’92, is an associate professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health. She is the first researcher to conduct a nested case control study of cancer incidence among World Trade Center responders. She investigates the interactive roles of occupational and behaviors risk factors (such as tobacco use) on cancer incidence. Her current research assesses risk factors and mechanisms for head and neck cancer. Before joining Rutgers, she spent 15 years working at the CDC and the Maine Bureau of Health.
Jessica Madrigal, PhD in Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology ’20, is a post-doctoral fellow with the National Cancer Institute’s Division of Cancer Epidemiology & Genetics, part of the National Institutes of Health. She uses geographic information systems (GIS) for environmental exposure assessment and to identify determinants of environmental exposures that are related to cancers, and cancer risk, in adults and children. As a researcher at UIC, she focused on chronic disease prevention and health disparities and collaborated on studies to evaluate the associations between heavy metal exposures and pulmonary function among children.
Matthew Schmitz, PhD in Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology ’16, is a senior scientist and toxicologist at Takeda focused on drug development and protecting workers, patients and the planet.. He reviews data on manufactured drug substances and products and determines health-based exposure limits for workers and patients. He contributes to hazard assessment and classification per the United Nations Globally Harmonized System for compounds handled within Takeda facilities or at other facilities on behalf of the company. His toxicological risk assessments support manufacturing as well as justification of specifications for drug substances and drug products that are submitted to regulatory health authorities. Finally, he also contributes to the environmental risk assessment process.