EHS Seminar Series hosted by UK-CARES
“Indoor and Outdoor Air Pollution research in Tribal community-driven, participatory environmental health studies”
by Esther Erdei, PhD, MPH, MSc Hons, MEd
Research Associate Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at University of New Mexico, College of Pharmacy; Lead of UNM P50 Center for Native Environmental Health Community Engagement and Dissemination Core; Chairperson of the UNM HSC Institutional Review Board, UNM HSC VP Office of Research
Esther Erdei earned a Biology and Human Medicine MSc Hons in 1991 and a PhD in Immunology from the Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest, Hungary in 2003. Erdei also has an MEd in Biology Education and a MPH degree with Epidemiology concentration from the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center School of Medicine in 2010. Erdei worked as a public health officer in Europe for 8 years, serving in 12 countries under the WHO European Offices, focusing on air pollution, indoor smoking and climate change research. Erdei carries out metabolomics, autoimmune molecular marker development, autoimmune disease epidemiology and environmental health research, to actively support toxicant exposures and adverse health effects investigations that communities request and initiate. This work has been funded by the NIH in the last 16 years to carry out Tribally-focused and engaged environmental health research. Additional contributions include efforts towards population-based cancer genomics, cancer population-science, and cancer prevention research for the past 18 years. Erdei has built successful and trusted collaborations with several Tribal communities in the Southwestern and Midwest U.S.A. This includes bringing environmental health research and educational opportunities to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and neighboring Tribal communities. These efforts have recently been expanded to other Lakota areas as well.
We recognize the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (Grant P30 ES026529) for the generous support of this seminar series.