Faculty

  • Sandra Albrecht, PhD

    • Assistant Professor of Epidemiology

    Sandra Albrecht, MPH, PhD, researches the socio-cultural and environmental factors that contribute to the progression of obesity and type 2 diabetes in U.S. immigrants, and among subgroups of Latinos in the United States and in Latin America.

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  • Kiros Berhane, PhD

    • Chair of Biostatistics
    • Cynthia and Robert Citron-Roslyn and Leslie Goldstein Professor of Biostatistics

    Kiros Berhane, PhD, has extensive experience in methods development and epidemiologic investigation on the synergistic impacts of the built environment (e.g., Access/Proximity to Food, impacts of Food Deserts, etc.) on childhood obesity development.

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  • Mark Bittman

    • Lecturer in Health Policy and Management at CUMC

    From his bestselling How to Cook Everything book series to his regular op-eds in The New York Times, Mark Bittman has elevated the topic of food to the national stage. Through editorial contributions, public lectures, and media appearances, he has drawn attention to the political and social forces that shape our diets, illustrating the links between consumer eating habits, industrial agriculture, and food marketing.

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  • Thomas Briese, PhD

    • Associate Professor of Epidemiology (in the Center for Infection and Immunity)

    Thomas Briese, PhD, conducts research on pathogen detection among food, fish, and livestock projects, looking into cattle-related diseases.

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  • Richard Deckelbaum

    Richard Deckelbaum, MD, studies climate change in relation to water scarcity and food production with the intention of finding ways to feed an increasing population.

  • Mary Gamble

    • Professor of Environmental Health Sciences

    Mary Gamble, PhD, focuses on nutritional biochemistry at both basic and applied levels. She has done extensive research on the metabolism of vitamin A and its derivatives, including in the Republic of the Marshall Islands and in Brazil, as well as on nutrient-environment interactions such as nutritional influences on arsenic toxicity and treatments.

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  • Jeanine Genkinger, PhD

    • Associate Professor of Epidemiology

    Jeanine Genkinger, PhD, is a cancer and nutritional epidemiologist who seeks to understand how rare, highly fatal cancers might be prevented or ameliorated by modifying risk factors (including nutrition) and improving early detection.

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  • Julie Herbstman, MSc, PhD

    • Professor of Environmental Health Sciences

    Dr. Julie Herbstman's research focuses on the impact of prenatal exposures to environmental risk factors, including climate conditions on child growth and development.  Dr. Herbstman's research follows on pregnant women and their children prospectively, with a focus on quantifying early biological impacts of air pollution and other pollutants--as well as the impact of psychosocial stressors including financial (and food) insecurity.  

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  • S. Patrick Kachur, MD, MPH

    • Professor of Population and Family at the Columbia University Medical Center
    • Interim Chair, Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health

    Dr. Kachur contributes to malaria surveillance research and improvement programs funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other partners.  Interpreting trends in malaria illness and vector abundance data requires an understanding of the contributions of climate and agricultural productivity at a global and local level.

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  • Katherine Keyes

    • Professor of Epidemiology

    Katherine Keyes, PhD, MPH, is a leader in population health science who focuses her research on life course epidemiology. She has developed cutting-edge methodologies to study obesity, perinatal conditions, substance use disorders, and psychological distress.

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  • Nischay Mishra, PhD

    • Assistant Professor of Epidemiology (In the Center for Infection and Immunity) at CUMC

    Dr. Mishra is a virologist and molecular biologist with over 10 years of experience in high throughput sequencing, viral metagenomics, serology, viral epidemiology, diagnostics and bioinformatics. His works on food and the microbiome from an infectious point of view, transferring the bacterium, and considering how we look into food safety, and waters connection to food systems.

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  • Manuela Orjuela-Grimm, MD

    • Associate Professor Epidemiology and Pediatrics (in the HICCC) at CUMC
    • Faculty, Department of Pediatrics (Division of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology, Stem Cell Transplantation

    Dr. Orjuela-Grimm’s climate change related work focuses on examining dietary exposures in economic migrant youth from LatinAmerica many of whom are migrating because of climate related changes to their region's sources of livelihood.  Additionally she examines the impact of living conditions on dietary patterns in economic migrants living in NYC.

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  • Anne Paxton, DrPH

    • Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Population and Family Health at CUMC

    Anne Paxton, DrPH, MPH, has worked to enhance childhood nutrition and maternal health in more than 30 countries. Her current research focuses on understanding dietary changes among immigrants to the United States, as well as dietary changes in middle- and low-income countries associated with a rapid increase in chronic diseases.

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  • Brandon Pearson, PhD

    • Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences

    Dr. Pearson studies how temperature extremes and stress influence aging and aging associated disease in rapid-aging animal model systems. He also works with pesticide toxicology. As food production is increasingly industrialized and reliant on food- and seed-applied pesticides and growth regulators that are often harmful to human health.

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  • Andrew Rundle

    • Professor of Epidemiology

    Dr. Rundle studies the individual- and neighborhood-level causes of obesity and the cancer related outcomes of obesity.  In regards to food he and his team have studied how neighborhood food environments influence diet, body mass index and the management of chronic diseases.  

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  • Kathrin Schilling, MSc, PhD

    • Assistant Professor at CUIMC of Environmental Health Sciences

    Dr. Schilling is a geochemist who does research on earth nutrients.

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  • Rachel Shelton, ScD, MPH

    • Associate Professor of Sociomedical Sciences

    Rachel Shelton, ScD, MPH, is a social and behavioral scientist and one of the nation’s foremost authorities on implementation science. She has published extensively on social and contextual factors, including nutrition, that influence disparities in cancer and other chronic diseases among low-income African American and Hispanic populations.

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  • Rupak Shivakoti, PhD, MHS

    • Assistant Professor of Epidemiology

    Rupak Shivakoti, PhD, studies the central role of inflammation and immunity in health outcomes. He is currently investigating the relationship of nutrition with the microbiome and inflammation in observational studies of adult and maternal-infant populations, and testing sustainable interventions to reduce inflammation and improve health outcomes.

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  • Gina Wingood, ScD, MPH

    • Sidney and Helaine Lerner Professor of Public Health Promotion (in Sociomedical Sciences)

    Gina Wingood, ScD, MPH, is a distinguished researcher and academic leader in the health promotion field, with decades of expertise in designing and evaluating interventions that reduce health disparities, particularly in people with HIV. She leads the Lerner Center, which conducts research into nutrition improvement communications campaigns.

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  • Lewis Ziska

    • Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at CUMC

    Lewis Ziska, PhD, is a plant physiologist formerly with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service. Dr. Ziska has published more than 100 peer-reviewed research articles related to climate change and rising carbon dioxide. His work addresses agriculture and food security, invasive species, and plant biology and public health. His most recent book is Agriculture, Climate Change and Food Security in the 21st Century: Our Daily Bread.

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