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William “Brett” Perkison, M.D., MPH, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health in the division of occupational and environmental sciences and program director of the school’s occupational and environmental medicine residency. He obtained his medical degree at UTMB Galveston and completed residencies in Family Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and Occupational and Environmental medicine at the UT School of Public Health. Prior to joining the faculty, he has worked as a regional manager in occupational medicine in the energy industry in corporate, research and manufacturing. He has also been a medical director of both outpatient community health settings as well as in employee health for a large health care system.  During his career he has had extensive experience in disaster response efforts in the Houston area, including for hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Ike, and Harvey.

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Dr. Thomas Cunningham is a senior behavioral scientist in the Division of Science Integration of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).  He serves as the scientific lead of the NIOSH Health Worker Mental Health Initiative. His research addresses intervention development and research translation for safety and health applications in construction, health care, and several small business sectors. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in clinical psychology from Virginia Tech.

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Natalie Schwatka, PhD is an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in the Colorado School of Public Health. She is the Research Core Director of the Center for Health, Work & Environment’s NIOSH Center of Excellence in Total Worker Health as well as the Program Director of the NIOSH Mountain and Plains Education and Research Center’s Certificate in Total Worker Health. Dr. Schwatka has over 10 years of experience in conducting research and practice to advance the science of why investing in workforce health matters and how to help businesses make this investment via leadership. Dr. Schwatka earned her PhD (2014) and MS (2011) from Colorado State University in environmental health with an occupational ergonomics specialization and a BA in psychology from the University of Portland (2008).

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Dr. Schaeffer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences at Colorado State University. His research is primarily focused on assessing exposure and health outcomes among vulnerable populations. His research addresses exposures to particulate matter, silica, and heavy metals. In addition, Dr. Schaeffer’s research characterizes exposures to bioaerosols containing microbial communities, pathogens, antibiotic-resistant genes, and viruses among livestock workers as well as physicians, and communities impacted by flooding events. He aims to model exposure-response relationships in the context of the microbiome, inflammatory markers, sub-acute asthma markers, and pulmonary function to develop control strategies that reduce exposure and improve health.

Deputy Director | Office of Research Integration |Office of the Director
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) | Cincinnati, OH, USA

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Jessica MK Streit is Deputy Director of the Office of Research Integration in the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). She also serves as the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) Intramural Research Scientific Program Official for NIOSH. In these roles, Jessica works closely with Dr. Sarah Felknor, the NIOSH Associate Director for Research Integration, to lead key NIOSH efforts in the areas of strategic foresight, expanding research partnerships, and NORA intramural research. Jessica has coauthored publications examining occupational safety and health risks and hazards—in particular, psychosocial risks and hazards—faced by workers today and in the future. Recently, she served as lead author on a foundational NIOSH paper exploring the role of strategic foresight in occupational safety and health. Jessica holds a professional certificate in Strategic Foresight from the University of Houston (Houston, TX, USA), a doctor of philosophy degree in Health Education and a professional certificate in Community and Public Health from the University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, OH, USA), a Master of Science degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology and a bachelor of science degree in Statistics from Northern Kentucky University (Highlands Heights, KY, USA), and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Miami University (Oxford, OH, USA). She is also a certified Base SAS® Programming Specialist.

UIC Faculty Investigator

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Dr. Susan Buchanan is a clinical associate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health and the director of the Great Lakes Center for Reproductive and Children’s Environmental Health. This center, funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, is designated as the Pediatric Environmental Specialty Unit for federal EPA Region 5. Dr. Buchanan also directs the Great Lakes Center for Occupational Health and Safety, a training center at the UIC School of Public Health funded by the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Dr. Buchanan is an expert in health problems related to toxic substances and other environmental hazards in the workplace or community. In addition to a clinical practice in the University Health Center at UIC, her research has included the health of minority, low-income, and immigrant workers; and reproductive environmental health. She has published studies on the impact of fish consumption and mercury exposure, the use of protective gear among Latino day-laborers; and lead exposure among Chicago’s children.

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Preethi Pratap, MSc., PhD is an assistant professor in the Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health. Dr. Pratap has 18+ years of experience in public health research with a strong commitment to translation and dissemination of public health best practices for diverse audiences and mentoring and teaching the next generation of professionals.

Dr. Pratap is principal investigator on a research project under the UIC Center for Health Work (CHW) and serves as the Director for Continuing Education and Outreach for the Great Lakes Center for Occupational Health and Safety (GLC-OHS).

Her current research interests are in conducting practice-based and equity-focused research to explore work as a social and structural determinant of health and its role in health inequities; application of systems thinking and participatory action approaches to engage stakeholders across the work ecosystem (academia, healthcare, corporations, government, community-based organizations); and developing and testing evidence for broader policy, systems and environment (PSE) change initiatives to promote and support health and well-being for ALL workers.

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Lily Monsey is a research coordinator in the UW department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. She manages the Mentoring SMART Women mentorship program, a pilot study seeking to improve leadership skills and social support for women working in the sheet metal trade.

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Dr. Nicole Bowles received her PhD from The Rockefeller University in Neuroendocrinology under the tutelage of the late Dr. Bruce McEwen and her Masters in Clinical Epidemiology from Weill Cornell Medical College as a Center of Excellence in Disparities and Community Engagement Research Fellow. As an Assistant Professor in the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences at OHSU, Dr. Bowles currently works to couple her training in molecular neuroendocrinology with more recent training in human research, including a postdoc with Steven Shea, Ph.D. at OHSU. Her developing research portfolio sits at the nexus of basic science and social science. Specifically, she examines the role of cannabinoid signaling in the modulation of sleep and circadian rhythms in humans, and determines how these signaling patterns buffer the cardiometabolic responses to psychosocial and environmental stress. Additionally, Dr. Bowles continues to use a community based participatory framework (CBPR): (1) to study sleep, stress and circadian rhythms in populations of shift workers including on-duty Oregon firefighters and police officers; and (2) to bring diverse populations into the laboratory where she is able to control the environment and behaviors to systematically measure sleep and circadian phase. In order to collect data in the field, Dr. Bowles makes use of a number of wearable devices (e.g., actigraphy and heart rate monitoring as measures of sleep; vital patch for measures of ECG and temperature). In the laboratory, she works bedside to bench, and pairs psychometrics with biological assays that measure cannabinoid activity (e.g., ligands and their respective receptors and enzymes). Dr. Bowles’ research is currently funded through the Oregon Health Workforce Center a NIOSH Total Worker Health Center of Excellence and a NHLBI K01 Career Training Award. She was also awarded OHSU’s 2021 Women in Academic Health & Medicine Emerging Leader Award and serves on OHSU’s Fellowship for Diversity in Research Advisory Committee as well as the SRBR Trainee Day Planning Committee.

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Dr. Staley is the Deputy Director and Director of Outreach and Continuing Education at the North Carolina Occupational Safety Health Education and Research Center, and is a member of the BSPH Core Faculty in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. He is also Co-Director of the Outreach Core for the Carolina Center for Total Worker Health® and Well-being. Dr. Staley has over 20 years of experience as a preparedness and workplace safety and health researcher and instructor. He collaborates with the first responder and military communities to improve preparedness and response education and practice, as well as conducts research and translation of findings using a Total Worker Health® approach for issues impacting the health of vulnerable occupational groups throughout the Southeastern United States.  He is currently a research investigator in the national STEPPS Study assessing physicians’ pandemic stress.