ENVS Colloquium: Advancing Environmental Justice and Health Equity through Innovation in Research, Policy, and Communication

Join us on Zoom on May 3 for our Spring 2021 departmental colloquium

Zoom Link

Ami Zota, ScD, MS, is an Associate Professor at the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. She directs the ARISE-EJ lab at GW whose mission is secure environmental justice and improve health equity through advancements in science, policy, clinical practice, and communication. Her current research examines how social-structural factors, such as racism, classism, and sexism, shape environmental chemical exposures and the health of women and children. Dr. Zota is equally committed to science communication. Her work has been featured in high-impact national and international media publications including the Washington Post, USA Today, and the Atlantic Monthly and has helped shape health and safety standards for consumer product chemicals. Dr. Zota is also active in multiple efforts to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in the scientific enterprise. Dr. Zota recently launched the Agents of Change in Environmental Health initiative with Environmental Health News to amplify voices of future environmental health and justice leaders from under-represented groups. In 2017, Dr. Zota was recognized as a Pioneer under 40 in Environmental Public Health by the Collaborative on Health and the Environment. @amizota

 MyDzung Chu, PhD, MSPH, is a Postdoctoral Scientist at the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. She is invested in policy-driven research and practice centered on housing and environmental justice. Her postdoctoral research with Dr. Ami Zota investigates the impact of federal housing assistance on residential environmental exposures for low-income communities using novel national data linkages. She is also co-investigator of pilot study looking at the impact of acculturation and environmental risk factors on the gut microbiome for foreign-born women. Her dissertation research examined socio-contextual drivers of disparities in indoor and ambient air pollution and poor housing quality for low-income, immigrant, and Black and Brown households. MyDzung is a former Agents of Change in EH Fellow, and currently serves on the boards of the Healthy Building Network and the the Asian American Resource Workshop. She also organizes with local residents and non-profits in Greater Boston, MA, where she resides, for affordable housing and anti-displacement policies. She has a PhD in Population Health Sciences from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, a MSPH in Environmental-Occupational Health and Epidemiology from Emory University, and a BA in Neuroscience from Smith College. @mydz_C

Yoshira Ornelas Van Horne, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Division of Environmental Health at the University of Southern California. Dr. Ornelas Van Horne is first-generation college graduate and the first Latina to receive a PhD in Environmental Health Sciences from the University of Arizona. Dr. Ornelas Van Horne is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Southern California where she received a Diversity Supplement Award from NIEHS. She is also a current Agents of Change in EH Fellow. Her dissertation focused on working with the Diné communities impacted by the Gold King Mine Spill to develop a community-based risk assessment and collaborated with community partners to ensure the dissemination of culturally appropriate results. Dr. Ornelas Van Horne’s research focuses on addressing unequal exposures to harmful contaminants that affect structurally marginalized communities. @yoshi_ra