2020 Expanding Research Partnerships Series

On Wednesday, September 2, 2020, we held the third and final installment of the 2020 Expanding Research Partnerships Webinar Series with presentations by intramural and extramural speakers on Developing Partnerships during a Pandemic.

The NIOSH Disaster Science Responder Research Program: Integrating Worker Safety and Health Research with the COVID-19 Response
Presenters: Angela Weber, MS, and Elizabeth Whelan, PhD
NIOSH Disaster Science Responder Research Program

Engaging seafood processing workers in a pandemic
Presenters: Laura Syron, PhD, MPH, and Kaitlin Kelly-Reif, PhD
NIOSH Western States Division and Division of Field Studies and Engineering

Role of NIOSH-funded Extramural Centers COVID-19 Response
Presenter: Elizabeth Fisher, CHES, MAc
University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health

Learning from and helping small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic
Presenter: Marissa Baker, PhD
University of Washington School of Public Health

Oregon Healthy Workforce Center COVID-19 Partnerships and Projects
Presenter: Dede Montgomery, MS, CIH
Oregon Healthy Workforce Center, Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences

Disaster Workforce Planning for 2020 and Beyond: Studies from the Sunshine ERC
Presenter: Jennifer Marshall, PhD
University of South Florida Sunshine Education and Research Center

Carolina PROSPER: Promoting Safe Practices for Employees Return
Presenter: John Staley, PhD, MSEH
University of North Carolina, Occupational Safety and Health Education and Research Center

Presentation Date: September 2, 2020

Angela Weber, MS – NIOSH
Angela Weber is the Program Coordinator for the CDC’s NIOSH Disaster Science Responder Research Program located within the Emergency Preparedness and Response Office in Atlanta, GA.  In this position, she advances research and stakeholder collaborations to protect the health and safety of emergency responders and recovery workers in anticipation of and during responses to natural and man-made disasters and novel emergent incidents. Over the past 20+ years at CDC, she has prepared for and responded to a variety of infectious disease outbreaks and public health emergencies including the 2003 SARS response, multiple anthrax and ricin incidents, Ebola, hurricanes, and the on-going COVID-19 response.  She formerly served as an industrial hygienist in the NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluation Program; in the National Center for Environmental Health, Office of Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response; and in the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Division of Preparedness and Emerging Infections.

Elizabeth Whelan, PhD — NIOSH
Dr. Elizabeth Whelan received her Ph.D. in epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1991 and joined NIOSH as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer that same year.  She is currently chief of the Field Research Branch in the Division of Field Studies and Engineering.  Dr. Whelan has over 25 years of experience conducting occupational epidemiology studies and her research interests include reproductive health, take-home exposures, occupational cancer, and emergency response research.  Dr. Whelan is a Commissioned Officer in the United States Public Health Service and was deployed to West Africa in 2014 in response to the Ebola virus outbreak.  She currently serves as co-chair of the NIOSH Disaster Science Responder Research (DSRR) Steering Committee.

Laura Syron, PhD, MPH — NIOSH
Dr. Laura Syron is a researcher at NIOSH. She earned a Ph.D. in Environmental and Occupational Health, and an M.P.H in International Health, from Oregon State University. For the past six years, she has conducted occupational safety and health research in high-risk maritime industries, including seafood processing and commercial fishing. Dr. Syron serves on leadership teams for two NIOSH Core and Specialty Programs, the Center for Maritime Safety and Health Studies and the Occupational Health Equity Program. She has been involved in developing guidance for COVID-19 prevention in the workplace.

Kaitlin Kelly-Reif, PhD – NIOSH

Dr. Kaitlin Kelly-Reif is an epidemiologist at NIOSH and earned her PhD in environmental and occupational epidemiology from the Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. She is the co-project officer for a NIOSH study on COVID-19 prevention among Seafood Processors. Additionally, Kaitlin leads chronic disease studies of workers exposed to ionizing radiation, particulate matter, and chemicals. She collaborates with several international research consortia to develop large international datasets of radiation exposed workers. Kaitlin is currently working to develop the largest cohort of workers exposed to carbon nanotubes and nanofibers (CNT/F) in response to biomarker studies indicating potential respiratory health effects from CNT/F exposure. She and her colleagues are also in the early phases of a multifaceted study of workers exposed to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

Elizabeth Fisher, CHES, MAc — University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health
Ms. Fisher is currently a research specialist at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health in the Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and Deputy Director of the Center for Healthy Work, a NIOSH-funded Center of Excellence for Total Worker Health. In this role, she serves as the primary contact and liaison with internal and external stakeholders and manages the dissemination of scholarly materials and other communications. Central to her role with the Center for Healthy Work, Ms. Fisher works to build the capacity of the public health workforce to address precarious work, by supporting trainings such as the Healthy Work Collaborative. As a Certified Health Education Specialist, translating research to shape accessible health promotion messaging has been one of Ms. Fisher’s guiding goals in the public health workforce. Elizabeth Fisher holds a Bachelor of Science in Community Health Sciences degree from Ohio University and she is currently a Masters’ candidate in Health Communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Ms. Fisher’s focus areas include health communications, community and economic development, occupational health, social and structural determinants of health, as well as systems change.

Marissa Baker, PhD — University of Washington School of Public Health
Marissa Baker is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences in the University of Washington School of Public Health. She is also the program director of the industrial hygiene training program at the Northwest Center for Occupational Health and Safety.  Dr. Baker’s research has mostly focused on exposure to manganese in welders and shipyard and foundry workers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she has worked with a variety of workplaces and labor organizations to help develop and implement plans to protect workers. Additionally, she has utilized existing data sources to identify occupational groups most at risk for exposure to disease or infection, and characterized workers that cannot work from home, in order to inform public health guidance and COVID-19 risk communication.

Dede Montgomery, MS, CIH — Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences, Oregon Healthy Workforce Center
Dede Montgomery has more than thirty years experiencing working as an industrial hygienist and safety and health professional.  Dede leads up outreach and education for both the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences and the NIOSH-funded Oregon Healthy Workforce Center as well as provides industrial hygiene technical expertise to its research.  Dede is currently the VP of the Columbia-Willamette Chapter of ASSP, recently ended terms on ASSP’s Council on Professional Affairs and ASSP’s Total Worker Health Taskforce, and sits on the ASSP/ANSI Total Worker Health Standard Committee.

Jennifer Marshall, PhD — University of South Florida Education and Research Center
Dr. Jennifer Marshall is an Associate Professor at the University of South Florida (USF) College of Public Health, Chiles Center, teaching courses in Maternal and Child Health, Community Partnerships and Advocacy, and Community‐based Research Methods and Program Evaluation. She serves as Interdisciplinary Faculty Lead and is also Director of Research and Evaluation and Deputy Director of Outreach for the NIOSH-funded Sunshine Education, Research and Training Center for occupational health and safety. Leading Florida’s HRSA‐funded Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting evaluation since 2013 and the statewide Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Impact Project evaluation, she conducts interdisciplinary public health systems research assessing perinatal support and infant mortality prevention programs and workers; family‐centered care and access to services for women, families and children; mental health programs; and Florida’s Early Childhood Courts. Her worker health research primarily focuses on health disparities, social determinants of health, and social services and health care providers. Her interests stem from over 25 years of experience working with community programs that support perinatal women’s health, underserved communities, and parents of young children with special health care needs. Areas of expertise include mixed‐methods, community‐ based, participatory research and program evaluation. Dr. Marshall has worked with the Florida Birth Defects Registry and USF Birth Defects Surveillance Program for 10 years lead for community‐based research on systems of care and family supports, including Zika virus epidemic response and hurricane preparedness.

John Staley, PhD, MSEH — University of North Carolina Occupational Safety and Health Education and Research Center
John Staley is NC OSHERC’s Director of Outreach and Continuing Education. Dr. Staley is also a member of the BSPH core faculty in the Gillings School of Global Public Health, and Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Dr. Staley has over 20 years of experience as a public health policy and management expert, including occupational safety and health micro/macro level management. His work includes disaster preparedness and response program development, infectious disease and environmental health/safety, and pedagogy and program/curriculum design for undergraduate, masters and doctoral level programs. Dr. Staley has a strong interest in outreach with the first responder community (e.g., fire/EMS, law enforcement, military) and vulnerable work populations. Dr. Staley is also collaborating with NIOSH sponsored southeastern ERCs from the University of South Florida, University of Florida, University of Alabama Birmingham, and the University of Kentucky, focusing on COVID-19 specific occupational safety and health issues prevalent in the southeastern United States, fostering regional cross-collaboration to improve the health of the US workforce.

On Wednesday, June 10, 2020, we kicked off the second installment of the 2020 Expanding Research Partnerships Webinar Series, with a special collaboration with the NIOSH Office for Total Worker Health^® and the NIOSH Future of Work Initiative. We featured exciting topics on the future of work and implications for aging workers.

A Look at the Intersection of Aging, Worker Well-being and the Future of Work
Presenter: L. Casey Chosewood, MD, MPH
NIOSH Office for Total Worker Health (TWH)

When Aging and Work Collide
Presenter: James Grosch, PhD
NIOSH National Center for Productive Aging and Work

Aging Workers in the Future of Work
Presenter: Martin Cherniack, MD, MPH, and Jennifer Garza, ScD
University of Connecticut Health Center

Presentation Date: June 10, 2020

L. Casey Chosewood, MD, MPH – NIOSH
Dr. L. Casey Chosewood is currently the Director of the Office for Total Worker Health^® at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In this role, he promotes the protection and improvement of the safety, health and well-being of workers around the world. Since 2018, he has also coordinated NIOSH’s work addressing the nation’s opioid overdose epidemic. From 2004 to 2009, he served as the Director of the CDC Office of Health and Safety safeguarding the 15,000 members of the CDC workforce as they faced the new challenges of the modern public health era, including emerging infectious diseases, bioterrorism and other global health challenges. His office led numerous CDC workforce protection programs, including all occupational health services, laboratory and biosafety programs, environmental and compliance activities, and workplace well-being and prevention initiatives. He has served as the Medical Director of CDC’s three occupational health clinics. His team has overseen a multi-faceted workplace health program providing more than 200,000 encounters, screenings, and health opportunities annually. He has presented extensively on worker safety and occupational health, biological and laboratory safety, international travel medicine, and workplace well-being.

Dr. Chosewood received his medical degree at the Medical College of Georgia and completed his residency in Family Medicine at the University of Connecticut. He has been an Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine since 1997. He received a Master of Public Health in Health Policy and Management from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health in May 2014. Before coming to CDC, Dr. Chosewood was the Medical Director for the Southeastern Region of Lucent Technologies.

James Grosch, PhD – NIOSH
Dr. James Grosch is a Senior Research Psychologist and Co-Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Center for Productive Aging and Work. He has a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology and a Master of Business Administration—both from the University of New Hampshire. His work at NIOSH focuses on better understanding how behavioral and work organization factors affect a worker’s safety and health. Recent projects include: changes in health and cognitive ability that workers experience as they age, characteristics of age-friendly workplaces, job stressors associated with increased risk of heart disease and depression, and the impact of job transitions (e.g., retirement, being laid off) on both physical and mental health outcomes.

Martin Cherniack, MD, MPH – University of Connecticut Health Center
Dr. Martin Cherniack is an occupational medicine physician and Professor of Medicine at the University of Connecticut (UConn) Health Center. He has worked as an academic physician and investigator for the past 34 years. Dr. Cherniack has worked principally on occupational musculoskeletal diseases and concentrated clinically on management of chronic disease in the working population. In more recent years, he has been engaged in translational research, combining biomedical and social sciences with the goal of developing preventive health interventions for general  implementation.

Since 2006, he has been the co-director of the Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace (CPH-NEW)external icon – one of six NIOSH-funded Centers of Excellence for Total Worker Health (TWH). Since 2008, he has been the Principal Investigator for the UConn-SAM (University of Connecticut Study on Aging and Musculoskeletal Disease), NIOSH-funded longitudinal study directed to aging and work, He has directed domestic and international studies on hand-arm vibration, the physiology of aging, integrated interventions in manufacturing and public sector work forces, ergonomic tool development, and radiation related health effects at Chernobyl.

Jennifer Garza, ScD – University of Connecticut Health Center
Dr. Garza is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the University of Connecticut (UConn) Health Center. Her research interests include ergonomics, musculoskeletal health, and occupational exposure assessment. She has been the co-Principal Investigator on UConn-SAM (University of Connecticut Study on Aging and Musculoskeletal Disease) since 2017 and is principally working on wearable instrumentation for assessing activity demands in and out of work.

On Wednesday, March 11, 2020, we kicked off the first installment of the 2020 Expanding Research Partnerships Webinar Series. We featured exciting topics on the future of work and implications for occupational safety and health.

Future of Work: Risks and Opportunities
Presenter: John Howard, MD
NIOSH Director

Mapping the Future of Work for the Safety and Health of Workers
Presenter: Paul A. Schulte, PhD
NIOSH Director of the Division of Science Integration

Horizon Scanning for Identifying Emerging Issues
Presenter: Andy Hines, PhD
Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator
University of Houston Graduate Program in Foresight

Presentation Date: March 11, 2020

John Howard, MD – NIOSH
Dr. John Howard is the Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and the Administrator of the World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Howard was first appointed NIOSH Director in 2002 during the George W. Bush Administration and served in that position until 2008. In 2009, Dr. Howard worked as a consultant with the US-Afghanistan Health Initiative. In September of 2009, Dr. Howard was again appointed NIOSH Director, and was reappointed for a third six-year term in 2015. Prior to his appointments as NIOSH Director and WTC Health Program Administrator, Dr. Howard served as Chief of the Division of Occupational Safety and Health in the State of California’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency from 1991 through 2002.

Dr. Howard earned a Doctor of Medicine from Loyola University of Chicago; a Master of Public Health from the Harvard University School of Public Health; a Doctor of Law from the University of California at Los Angeles; and a Master of Law in Administrative Law and Economic Regulation, and a Master of Business Administration in Healthcare Management, both degrees from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Dr. Howard is board-certified in internal medicine and occupational medicine. He is admitted to the practice of medicine and law in the State of California and in the District of Columbia, and he is a member U.S. Supreme Court bar. He has written numerous articles on occupational health, policy and law.

Paul A. Schulte, PhD – NIOSH
Dr. Paul Schulte is the Director of the Division of Science Integration and Co-Manager of the Nanotechnology Research Center at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Dr. Schulte has 40 years of experience in conducting research and developing guidance on occupational cancer, nanomaterials, risk communication, workplace well-being, and genetics. He also has examined the convergence of occupational safety and health and green chemistry and sustainability. He is the co-editor of the textbook, Molecular Epidemiology: Principles and Practices. Dr. Schulte has served as guest editor of the Journal of Occupational Medicine and the American Journal of Industrial Medicine and was on the initial editorial board of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.  He is currently on the International Advisory Board of the Annals of Occupational Hygiene. Dr. Schulte has developed various frameworks for addressing the aging workforce, burden of occupational disease and injury, well-being of the workforce, and translation research and synthetic biology and occupational risk.

Andy Hines, PhD – University of Houston 
Dr. Andy Hines is Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator for the University of Houston’s Graduate Program in Foresight and is also speaking, workshopping, and consulting through his firm, Hinesight. His 30 years of professional futurist experience includes a decade’s experience working inside first the Kellogg Company and later Dow Chemical, and consulting work with Coates & Jarratt, Inc. and Social Technologies/Innovaro. His books include Thinking about the Future (2nd edition), Teaching about the Future, ConsumerShift: How Changing Values Are Reshaping the Consumer Landscape, 2025: Science and Technology Reshapes US and Global Society, and his dissertation was The Role of an Organizational Futurist in Integrating Foresight into Organizations. He is a member and former Chair of the Association of Professional Futurists.