Members

University Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Health Sciences; Director, Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute

Phil Brown joined Northeastern University in 2012 after 32 years at Brown University. He is University Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Health Sciences, and director of the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute (SSEHRI), whic…

Associate Professor of Sociology and Health Sciences; Undergraduate Program Director, Sociology and Anthropology

Laura Senier’s research interests include the sociology of medicine and public health, community environmental health, and environmental justice. Her research identifies political, social, and economic barriers in research translation, or the effort …

Assistant Professor of Environmental Health in the Department of Health Sciences and Civil and Environmental Engineering

Associate Professor of Sociology and Health Science

Sara Wylie is assistant professor at Northeastern University with a joint appointment in sociology/anthropology and health sciences, where she is a member of the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute. Wylie seeks to develop new modes…

Professor of Law, Public Policy and Urban Affairs

Professor Shalanda Baker is on a professional leave of absence to serve in the Biden-Harris Administration as the director of the Office of Economic Impact and Diversity at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Professor Baker is a leading expert on e…

Associate Professor of Sociology

Alissa Cordner is Associate Professor of Sociology and Paul Garrett Fellow at Whitman College. She teaches courses in sociology and environmental studies, including Environmental Sociology, Environmental Health, Social Research Methods, Sociology of Health and Illness and Environmental Justice. Professor Cordner’s research focuses on environmental sociology, the sociology of risk and disasters, environmental health and justice, and politics and participation. Her two major areas of research are the social and political aspects of wildfire risk management and the social and scientific discoveries of perfluorinated chemicals.

Assistant Professor of Psychology and Public Policy

Sara Constantino is an assistant professor in the Psychology Department and the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs. She works broadly on social and environmental policy and decision-making. Her research focuses on understanding the interplay b…

Associate Professor Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences

Susan Mello is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Northeastern University. Broadly, her research interests lie at the intersection of risk perception, health communication, and the environment. Her recent work explores how exposure to risk information in the media, specifically about environmental toxins, COVID-19, and cancer, impacts individual perceptions and protective health behaviors. Her research has been published in Journal of Health Communication, Risk Analysis, and Nicotine & Tobacco Research, among other journals, and she has peer-reviewed research proposals for Cancer Research UK and the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

Associate Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and Art + Design

Dietmar Offenhuber’s research focuses on the relationship between design, technology, and governance. Dietmar is the author of the award-winning monograph Waste is Information (MIT Press), works as an advisor to the United Nations and published…

Associate Professor Director, Center for Socio-Environmental Resiliency, University of South Alabama

Dean’s Professor of Sustainability Science and Policy

Jennie C. Stephens’ research, teaching, and community engagement focus on social-political aspects of renewable energy transformation, energy democracy, climate resilience, reducing fossil-fuel reliance, gender diversity in energy and climate, …

Associate Professor Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders

Research Scientist Silent Spring Institute

Assistant Professor, University of Toronto Mississauga

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Abigail Bline is a multi-disciplinary scientist with research and training in environmental science, toxicology, and public health. As a fellow with the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute, PFAS Project Lab, and Silent Spring Insti…

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Kim is a member of the interdisciplinary PFAS Project lab and her work involves modeling presumptive PFAS contamination sites and studying the interactions of environments, communities, and governments on PFAS contamination. Previously, she studied t…

Postdoctoral Fellow (Computing Innovation Fellow)

Leah Horgan is a critical informatics scholar and designer whose work examines the intersection of technology, design, and urbanism. They have a background in media design, received their PhD in Informatics from the University of California, Irvine, …

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Casey joined the SSEHRI team in July 2023. She conducted dissertation research assessing the exposure experiences of 27 families impacted by asthma using air quality sensors with National Science Foundation support. Currently, with a dual appointment…

Visiting Scholar

Dr. Shir Sharon, a visiting scholar from Israel, is the former coordinator of the Israeli House of Parliament (Knesset) subcommittee for the Impact of Environment and Climate on Health. She helped formulate the decree to ban the use of PFAS in fire extinguishers used for practice and exercises in Israel. She has a background in Molecular Biology, specifically in the fields of Microbiology, Immunology and Plant Science.

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Kayleigh Ward’s research investigates how post-disaster communities handle and address co-evolving issues around community decline. More recently her work has extended to investigating the effects of community based reconstruction, social infra…

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Megan is a Postdoctoral Research Associate with PROTECT and CRECE as part of the NIH Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program under the guidance of Drs. Emily Zimmerman and Akram Alshawabkeh. Her research primarily focuses on understanding the relationships of non-nutritive suck (NNS) with prenatal exposures and later cognitive outcomes. Megan earned a B.A. in Psychology and a B.S. in Biology from Northern Illinois University before pursuing a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where her dissertation work focused on the relationships of prenatal exposures to a class of endocrine disrupting chemicals called phthalates and acetaminophen with early language development and attention.

Masters of Public Health in Urban Health Candidate

Marina (Goreau) Atlas is a 2nd year graduate student at Northeastern University. She received a BA/BS in Environmental Studies and a Social Justice and Social Policy minor in 2012 from Brandeis University, earning highest honors for her thesis on regulatory barriers to effective personal care product ingredient regulation under the FDA’s Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Since 2015, she has worked with the PFAS-Project lab at SSEHRI. She recently did a practicum at Silent Spring Institute, working with the PFAS-Research, Education, and Action for Community Health (PFAS-REACH) project. Previously her work applied epidemiological methods and biostatistical tools that she learned at Northeastern to identify, characterize, and re-assess, ecological-exposure to PFAS and related health effects observed in nearby communities. Marina’s research interests include exposure to inorganic chemicals as they impact bodily systems, with regard to environmental health and justice and urban health. Particularly, she is interested in learning about how the impacts of PFAS compounds on individuals, their families, and communities can be mitigated through strategic science translation.

Undergraduate Student, Public Health, Northeastern University

Sabrina Balmaseda is a third-year student from San Francisco pursing a BA in Public Health with a minor in Sociology. She also plans on obtaining a Master’s in Public Health once graduating from Northeastern University. For her first co-op Sabrina was a ROUTES Scholar and research assistant for the PFAS Project Lab. She will be continuing to work with Dr. Julia Varshavsky and Dr. Abigail Bline as a research assistant for the PFAS Project Lab. She first became interested in environmental health in high school after interning for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission as a Project Pull Intern.

Undergraduate Student, Public Health, Northeastern University

Alana Caluwe is a second-year undergraduate student at Northeastern University pursuing a BA in Public Health and minoring in Environmental Studies. She joined the PFAS Project Lab in January 2023 as an undergraduate research assistant. Alana became interested in PFAS when she learned about the high levels of PFAS in her town’s drinking water. After learning about this, she learned how PFAS have infiltrated almost all aspects of life. She further became interested in chemicals in cosmetics and personal care products. She is also very interested in environmental justice and has done extensive projects on different EJ cases. Alana is interested in informing the general public about the health effects of PFAS and bringing more awareness to this issue.

Undergraduate Student, Public Health, Northeastern University

Antonella Caratini is a Public Health student with a minor in Communication Studies at Northeastern University. Her passion for addressing public health challenges, especially related to health disparities, stems from her experiences growing up in Puerto Rico. Antonella has focused on the strong link between public health and environmental health, sparking her interest in researching PFAS and its associated health impacts. Her long-term aspiration is to pursue a career dedicated to investigating and addressing both environmental health disparities and other aspects of public health in underserved communities, with a commitment to making a meaningful difference in her home.

Sociology PhD Student

Allison D. Deese is a doctoral student in the Sociology department at Northeastern University and a member of the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute (SSEHRI). Her research examines how community-based organizations adapt to cumul…

Sociology PhD Candidate

Miranda joined Northeastern’s Department of Sociology & Anthropology in Fall 2021. She holds a B.A. in Anthropology and French Language & Culture and a certificate in French to English Translation from American University. She has condu…

Ph.D. Candidate, Population Health, Northeastern University; Research Assistant, PFAS Project Lab

Lauren Ellis is a first-year Population Health PhD student at Northeastern University and a Research Assistant in the PFAS Project Lab. She is passionate about studying the impacts of toxic chemicals, including PFAS, on human health and reducing exposures to those most vulnerable. Prior to starting her PhD program, Lauren worked as an Environmental Health Research Analyst at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), where she advocated for health-protective implementation of the reformed Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Before EDF, Lauren earned her MPH in Environmental Health Science & Policy at The George Washington University, where she led a systematic review and meta-analysis on the effects of organophosphate and carbamate insecticides on sperm concentration. During her MPH studies, Lauren gained professional experience in systematic review and chemical risk assessment as a part-time federal contractor, and policy experience as a Health Policy intern for the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.

Ph.D. Candidate, Marine and Environmental Science Department, Social-Ecological Sustainability Lab, Northeastern University, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow

Kelsi Furman is a PhD Candidate in Northeastern’s Marine and Environmental Science Department and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. Working with Dr. Steven Scyphers in the Social-Ecological Sustainability Lab, Kelsi uses a social-ecological systems approach to examine social inequities in Florida’s recreational fisheries. Prior to graduate school, Kelsi obtained her BS in Environmental Science from Northeastern, worked as a Research Technician at Northeastern’s Marine Science Center, and worked as a Teaching and Program Assistant for the Three Seas Program.

Sociology PhD Student

Jamie Hanna is a fourth-year PhD student in the Sociology Department and a member of the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute (SSEHRI). Jamie completed her BA in Law, Politics, and Society and Sociology at Drake University in Des Mo…

Sociology PhD Student

Xena Itzkowitz is a fourth-year PhD student and member of the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute (SSHERI). Xena received her BA in International Studies and Environmental Studies from American University, her MA in International R…

PhD in Public Policy

Alaina is a PhD candidate in Public Policy in the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, with a concentration in Sustainability and Resilience. She earned her BA in agricultural and environmental International Development Studies at McGill Univer…

Sociology Ph.D. Candidate

Grace Poudrier is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology at Northeastern University and a researcher at the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute. She studies mechanisms of knowledge production, ignorance, and agnotology in the field of environmental health, particularly in the contexts of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and hydraulic fracturing. Her work draws from the sociology of the environment, medicine, and STS, and is published in Engaging Science, Technology, and Society, Environmental Research and Public Health, and Sexual Medicine.

Undergraduate Student, Health Sciences, Northeastern University

Cecilia is a rising 5th year Health Science student at Northeastern University. She hopes to become a doctor one day and cares deeply about patient experience and health literacy. Cecilia is one of the ROUTES co-ops working in collaboration with the PROTECT team and Silent Springs Institute. This project hopes to analyze current barriers in the report back of individual results to patients who have participated in studies of environmental contaminant exposures. In response to these barriers, the team will design and implement a researcher training program to effectively incorporate report back into common research and clinical practice. The end goals of this project are to increase both patient and clinician environmental health literacy, and improve patient engagement and clinical outcomes. Having grown up in a bilingual family, she is thrilled and honored to be interacting so closely with the Puerto Rican patient population.

Ph.D. Student, Sociology, Northeastern University

Vic Say (she/her) is a PhD student in Sociology at Northeastern University. Vic received her Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from Bryn Mawr College where she was also a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow. Prior to graduate school, she worked as a research assistant at AccessMatters, a Philadelphia-based sexual and reproductive health non-profit. She worked on several projects and programs related to HIV, health equity, and family planning. Vic’s research interests lie at the intersection of environmental and reproductive health, and her work aims to examine inequality through the lens of racial capitalism and settler colonialism.

Ph.D. Candidate, Marine and Environmental Sciences, Northeastern University

Savannah Swinea (she/her) is a PhD Candidate in Marine and Environmental Sciences at Northeastern University and a Visiting PhD Student at the University of South Alabama and Dauphin Island Sea Lab. Savannah studies coastlines and oceans through the application of a social-ecological systems (SES) framework. In her thesis, Savannah employs participatory methods and practices to co-produce knowledge amongst stakeholders in Gulf of Mexico coastal social-ecological systems like shorelines and fisheries. Before her graduate work, Savannah received her B.S. in Environmental Sciences from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and worked at UNC’s Institute of Marine Sciences as both an undergraduate honors thesis researcher as well as a research technician.

Sociology PhD Candidate

Elisabeth Wilder is a PhD Candidate in Sociology whose research centers on environmental health and justice. Her dissertation critically examines industry and community-based visions and discourses of water justice and sustainability in the United St…