The UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) welcomes eight new faculty members to its ranks during the 2022-23 academic year.
Their expertise and academic backgrounds are rich and varied and include research expertise in environmental hazards, infectious disease, workplace safety for marginalized workers, environmental health disparities, urban environmental change, machine learning, the health impacts of pollution and emergency preparedness.
All new faculty are joining DEOHS at the rank of assistant professor or assistant teaching professor. The department currently has 39 regular faculty members.
New faculty members who have already started with DEOHS
Diana Ceballos, PhD, assistant professor
Ceballos’s life passion is to address health disparities by identifying environmental factors that cause disease, injury or impairment. These factors range from emerging hazards related to new technologies to known hazards that are transferred to vulnerable populations, including workers in small businesses, minorities and workers in developing economies. She strives to better understand the connection between exposure to hazards in the workplace and the community, including in the home, where workers may transfer hazards to their children. Learn more about Ceballos.
Erica Fuhrmeister, PhD, assistant professor
Fuhrmeister is interested in understanding environmental transmission pathways of pathogens, particularly enteric pathogens in low- and middle-income countries. As part of her postdoctoral work, she investigated the transmission of antibiotic resistance genes between humans, animals and the environment in Nairobi, Kenya, using metagenomics. In response to COVID-19, she has worked with other researchers to survey high-touch surfaces in the community for SARS-CoV-2 RNA.
Edward Kasner, PhD, assistant teaching professor
Kasner’s research focuses on leveraging technology to prevent injury and illness among working populations. He has conducted exposure assessments in the United States and China; led occupational epidemiology studies through the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; and sat on state advisory panels addressing pesticides, wildfire smoke and heat-related illness. As Outreach Director at the Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health (PNASH) Center, he leads strategic planning and partnership with the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries. He applies principles of community engagement and reproducible research to iteratively co-develop practical solutions for workplace safety and health.
Read about DEOHS faculty who will start later this school year >>