Environmental Health
Environmental health refers to the area of public health that aims to identify environmental hazards and examine how they are shaped by physical, chemical, biological, social, and structural factors. These hazards can be evaluated at the global scale (e.g., climate change) as well as from regional or local perspectives (e.g., air pollution, waste management, neighborhood design).
Some issues of environmental health are rural, such as the impact of dam construction of the prevalence of parasitic disease. Others are concentrated in urban areas and stem from the built form of the city and the presence of toxins in this environment.
Questions of environmental health are mitigated by race, gender, class, and geography. Importantly, environmental exposures are often concentrated among underserved communities, and thus the field of environmental health is closely connected to questions of environmental justice and environmental racism.
UCSC faculty from the Biological Sciences, the Social Sciences, and the Humanities are working together to better understand the historical and structural relations that link human communities to the material environment, the environmental determinants of human health, and how the disproportionate impact of environmental threats to human health on underserved communities and those in the Global South might be reduced.
Christopher Benner
- Pronouns
- he, him, his, his, himself
- Title
- Professor
- Department
- Environmental Studies Department
- Campus Email
- Faculty Areas of Expertise
- Urban studies
Raquel Chamorro Garcia
- Title
- Assistant Professor
- Department
- Microbiology & Environmental Toxicology Department
- Campus Email
![Profile picture of Raquel Chamorro Garcia](http://static.ucsc.edu/images/icon-slug.jpg)
Jennifer L Derr
- Pronouns
- she/they
- Title
- Associate Professor; Founding Director, Center for the Middle East and North Africa at UC Santa Cruz
- Department
- History Department
- Campus Email
- Faculty Areas of Expertise
- Disease and Immunity
Lindsey L Dillon
- Title
- Associate Professor
- Department
- Sociology Department
- Campus Email
- Faculty Areas of Expertise
- Activism
Madeleine P Fairbairn
- Title
- Associate Professor
- Department
- Environmental Studies Department
- Campus Email
- Faculty Areas of Expertise
- Agroecology and Agriculture
Julie H Guthman
- Title
- Professor
- Department
- Community Studies Program
- Campus Email
- Faculty Areas of Expertise
- Agroecology and Agriculture
Audrie Lin
- Pronouns
- she, her, her, hers, herself
- Title
- Assistant Professor
- Department
- Microbiology & Environmental Toxicology Department
- Campus Email
- Faculty Areas of Expertise
- Health and Wellness
![Profile picture of Audrie Lin](http://static.ucsc.edu/images/icon-slug.jpg)
Flora E Lu
- Pronouns
- she, her, her, hers, herself
- Title
- Professor, Environmental Studies
- Department
- Environmental Studies Department
- Campus Email
- Faculty Areas of Expertise
- Environmental Studies
Jennifer Taylor
- Title
- Associate Professor
- Department
- Film and Digital Media Department
- Campus Email
![Profile picture of Jennifer Taylor](http://static.ucsc.edu/images/icon-slug.jpg)
Carrie L Partch
- Pronouns
- she, her, her, hers, herself
- Title
- Professor
- Department
- Chemistry & Biochemistry Department
- Campus Email
- Faculty Areas of Expertise
- Biochemistry
Stacy M Philpott
- Pronouns
- she, her, her, hers, herself
- Title
- Professor
- Department
- Environmental Studies Department
- Campus Email
- Faculty Areas of Expertise
- Ecology
Mary Beth Pudup
- Title
- Associate Professor
- Department
- Community Studies Program
- Campus Email
S Ravi Rajan
- Title
- Professor
- Department
- Environmental Studies Department
- Campus Email
- Faculty Areas of Expertise
- Environmental Human Rights
Chad W Saltikov
- Title
- Professor
- Department
- Microbiology & Environmental Toxicology Department
- Campus Email
- Faculty Areas of Expertise
- Microbiology
![Profile picture of Chad W Saltikov](http://static.ucsc.edu/images/icon-slug.jpg)
Pallab Kumer Sarker
- Title
- Assistant Professor
- Department
- Environmental Studies Department
- Campus Email
Upasna Sharma
- Title
- Assistant Professor
- Department
- Molecular, Cell, & Developmental Biology Department
- Campus Email
![Profile picture of Upasna Sharma](http://static.ucsc.edu/images/icon-slug.jpg)
Donald R Smith
- Pronouns
- he, him, his, his, himself
- Title
- Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs, Distinguished Professor
- Department
- Microbiology & Environmental Toxicology Department
- Campus Email
- Faculty Areas of Expertise
- Biomedical Sciences
Anna L Tsing
- Title
- Professor
- Department
- Anthropology Department
- Campus Email
![Profile picture of Anna L Tsing](http://static.ucsc.edu/images/icon-slug.jpg)
Fitnat Yildiz
- Title
- Distinguished Professor
- Department
- Microbiology & Environmental Toxicology Department
- Campus Email
![Profile picture of Fitnat Yildiz](http://static.ucsc.edu/images/icon-slug.jpg)