Kristen Malecki, PhD
Professor and Division Director
Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
Contact
Building & Room:
SPHPI Room 1071
Address:
1603 W Taylor St
Office Phone:
Email:
About
Kristen Malecki, PhD, MPH is Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences (EOHS) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), School of Public Health, where she also serves as the EOHS Division Director. She has a PhD in Environmental Epidemiology and Health Policy and Masters of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. She was recently appointed to the National Academies of Sciences standing committee on the “Use of Emerging Science for Environmental Health Decisions.” She uses a multi-omic approach to examine combined chemical (air pollution, water pollution), physical and social stressors, and their influence on adult chronic disease, aging and health disparities.) As a member of the Molecular Environmental Toxicology Center, her transdisciplinary work uses epigenetics, transcriptomics in both human and animals studies of the gut microbiome and to identify interim biomarkers of exposure and response to improve understanding of the biological mechanisms underlying persistent health disparities. She also serves as the Principal Investigator for a number of community-academic partnerships and is committed to advancing urban and rural health equity. She also maintains longstanding partnerships with colleagues at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services which has facilitated a breadth of applied public health initiatives. Before becoming an academic, she served as the lead epidemiologist for the State of Wisconsin Environmental Public Health Tracking Program. In these roles she gained extensive experience in leading and managing multi-disciplinary teams of researchers, practitioners, and policy makers in development of new approaches to addressing environmental and occupational health challenges.