Biographies - Diacetyl

Kathleen Kreiss, MD
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After Harvard Medical School and internal medicine residency, Dr. Kreiss joined the Epidemic Intelligence Service in 1978, working in environmental studies before there was a Center for Environmental Health. She did a preventive medicine residency at CDC, assigned to the Colorado health department, helping to establish environmental epidemiology there. Between 1982 and 1996, she climbed the academic ladder at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, developing occupational medicine at National Jewish Health from scratch with a referral clinic and research program in occupational lung disease, as well as an accredited residency in occupational and environmental health. In 1996, Dr. Kreiss returned to CDC at its National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health as the field studies branch chief in the Respiratory Health Division. Over 20 years, her multidisciplinary group described new occupational lung diseases such as flock workers’ lung, flavoring-related bronchiolitis obliterans, indium-related alveolar proteinosis, and asthma due to dampness in the built environment, shark cartilage, and a pesticide. They also made major strides in understanding risk of beryllium disease by recognizing skin sensitization and genetic factors. Dr. Kreiss thinks occupational public health is challenging because diseases arise from the interstices of our economic system and values of those controlling conditions of work.

Ann Hubbs DVM, PhD
Photo of Ann P. Hubbs, DVM, PhD

Dr. Hubbs is a Veterinary Medical Officer at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She is also an adjunct associate professor at West Virginia University. She is board-certified in veterinary pathology, board eligible in laboratory animal medicine and the author or co-author of more than a hundred peer-reviewed papers, principally dealing with respiratory and toxicologic pathology. Her research includes many studies of emerging workplace hazards, including nanoparticles and flavoring vapors. These scientific publications have received numerous awards and according to Scopas have been cited more than 5000 times in the scientific literature resulting in an h-index of 38. In addition, she has used her knowledge to respond to public health emergencies, including the Anthrax events in 2001, the monkey pox outbreak in 2003, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Kristin J. Cummings, MD, MPH
Photo of Kristen Cummings, MD, MPH

Dr. Cummings received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University, and public health and medical degrees from Johns Hopkins University. She trained in Internal Medicine at Stanford University and Occupational Medicine at West Virginia University and is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Preventive Medicine. In 2005, she joined CDC as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer assigned to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Morgantown, West Virginia, later serving as Medical Officer (2007-2015) and Field Studies Branch Chief (2015-2018) in NIOSH’s Respiratory Health Division. She is currently a Consultant to NIOSH. Dr. Cummings’ work has focused on understanding the relationship between work conditions and lung disease to inform prevention. In addition to flavoring-related lung disease, she has investigated asthma in soy processing workers, alveolar proteinosis in indium-tin oxide (ITO) workers, and lymphocytic bronchiolitis in machinists. She contributed to CDC’s emergency response, including deployments for Hurricane Katrina and Ebola. She is also interested in health disparities as they relate to occupation and the impact of contingent employment arrangements on health.

Page last reviewed: January 30, 2019
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