by Amanda Feldpausch 13PH
Since its enactment in 1970, The Clean Air Act has been successful in reducing air quality-related health conditions and premature death, but the effort to keep our air quality improving is no small task. That’s why we’re thankful for alumni like Adam Benson 15PH and his work to address air pollution emissions and disparities across racial and socioeconomic groups.
Can you tell us about the path that brought you to working in environmental health?
While I have long had an interest in the environment, my path to environmental health and working with the EPA wasn’t entirely straightforward. I studied environmental science as an undergraduate; however, working with local communities on a variety of issues reinforced my observations that many communities felt like there were greater priorities than those championed by the broader environmental field. These experiences motivated me to pursue environmental health as a way to assist the immediate and diverse needs of many communities. While pursuing a degree in environmental health and epidemiology at Rollins, I ultimately came to focus on the health effects of air pollution. It was my growing interest in air pollution and the opportunity to understand environmental health policy at the federal level that led me to my fellowship with the EPA.
What was a typical work day like for you at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)?
My ORISE fellowship is stationed with the National Center for Environmental Assessment, which is primarily focused on issues of air quality. Over the course of my fellowship the daily experience has varied, but it typically involved supporting the National Center for Environmental Assessment’s core products, which are the Integrated Science Assessments for six major air pollutants (Particulate Matter, SOx, NOx, Ozone, Lead, and CO). These assessments serve as the scientific foundation for reviewing the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS), which the EPA is required to review and update every five years.
Much of my work involves contributing to the ongoing particulate matter assessment for health effects, where I review and synthesize epidemiologic literature on cardiovascular effects and particulate matter exposure. This involves conducting a systematic review of the literature, and depending on the stage of development, a typical day could involve screening studies for relevancy, reading and assessing studies for quality, meeting with team members to discuss methodology, extracting data, creating figures and visualizations, or in later stages, writing an integrative review of the studies. My work was one component of the broader chapter on cumulative cardiovascular evidence and assists in making a determination about the overall strength of evidence between particular matter and cardiovascular effects.
In addition to this, I also work on sections of the particulate matter assessment focused on potentially vulnerable populations, such minority populations, low-income populations, those with pre-existing disease, where I worked on a similar review of scientific evidence. In addition to reviewing epidemiologic studies, some days might include providing technical support for other scientific staff on assessment material, such as data analysis in Excel and R software, or providing GIS-related support with ArcGIS, QGIS, and R. I also work on various research projects, including collaborating with other ORISE fellows and EPA staff, where much of my focus has been on issues of environmental health disparities.
How did Rollins help to prepare you for your work?
No program can comprehensively cover all the skills someone will need, but my time at Rollins provided a valuable foundation and starting point for my career in public health. This foundation at Rollins was built from a combination of my coursework, internships, and knowledge from my fellow students.
For example, my time at EPA has included a combination of data and analysis work in Excel, R, and ArcGIS, in addition to working extensively on systematic review and synthesizing large bodies of epidemiologic evidence. Rollins helped provide a foundation for technical skillsets, whether it was gaining proficiency in SAS, which ultimately served as an excellent stepping stone to learning R, understanding essential methods in biostatistics and epidemiology, or expanding my skills in ArcGIS. I also felt my time at Rollins helped prepare me beyond the technical areas. In particular, one of my favorite courses was Dr. Bostick’s “Writing and Presenting Epidemiologic Research”. Much the material covered scientific writing for technical publications or presentation; however, it more broadly focused on effective communication. What constitutes effective communication will change with the target audience, but being able to communicate what your work is and why it is important will be critical in any public health job. While at EPA, this has been essential to my work, whether it involves working with staff scientists from a range of technical backgrounds, or being able to effectively synthesize and communicate epidemiologic evidence.
While at Rollins I also participated in an internship with the Georgia Department of Public Health. This was a wonderful opportunity to understand my coursework in the context of ongoing surveillance and public health communication at the state level. My experience with the public health department also helped prepare me for my thesis, where I focused on air pollution exposures that would be directly relevant to my future EPA work. I would also say much of my learning at Rollins came from the interactions and relationships I developed with my fellow students. This was from sharing our diverse range of public health interests as well as learning from each other’s shared experiences and challenges.
On days you felt the most accomplished, what did you do that day?
Many of my moments of accomplishment are less from a specific day of work and instead the opportunity to step back and see the culmination of months of work and refinement. For example, when a section of an ongoing Integrated Science Assessment was ready to send out for scientific review, or a major document was passed onto the next stage of the regulatory process. Those days are relatively anti-climactic and filled with more immediate agenda items, but it was certainly rewarding to know I was able to contribute to the process of continually refining critical national air quality standards.
Even more so than my work on major EPA science assessments, I felt most accomplished when being able to contribute to work on issues of environmental justice. This was both on days where I made small contributions to ongoing projects, as well as the longer process of publishing research on air pollution emissions and disparities across racial and socioeconomic groups. Environmental justice has been a critical inspiration in my desire to pursue a career in public health, and the opportunity to focus on issues of environmental justice is a strong reminder of how much more work remains to be done.
We heard you are finishing up your ORISE fellowship and taking a new position, can you tell us a little about what you will be doing next?
I will be joining a non-profit based in Washington DC called Truth Initiative, which focuses on smoking and tobacco cessation. My work will mainly involve contributing to the organizations research institute, where I hope to bring by background in environmental health, epidemiology and spatial analysis to the institute’s ongoing research activities on tobacco use, distribution, and attitudes towards smoking, such as the Truth Longitudinal Cohort study.
This position it is a bit of a change from my previous focus on criteria air pollutants, but like many forgotten environmental health concerns that have often been viewed as already solved (e.g. lead contamination in water), there remains extensive public health work to do on traditional and newly emerging tobacco products. In particular, many of the communities disproportionately impacted by environmental health issues may also have higher rates of smoking and be subject to disparities in marketing of tobacco products. I also think that our local environment influences many of our health and health behaviors, whether that is through nearby environmental exposures, urban planning policy that influences access to greenspace and public transit, or even the types of store and marketed products and services in our neighborhood. I look forward to a new lens on environmental health my position with Truth Initiative will offer.
What advice do you have for current students who are interested in working for the EPA or environmental health in general?
While I cannot speak to opportunities at the EPA at the moment, in general I would suggest students try and gain diverse experiences outside the classroom. Graduate school is a perfect time to explore multiple areas of interest and refine what type of work, and work environment, you hope to pursue in the future. Do not be worried if something does not immediately sound like a perfect match, each experience is an opportunity to learn skills that may end up highly relevant down the line. If you have a specific area of interest, be flexible but persistent. There may be ways to bring your specific interest and knowledge into your internship or work.
I would also add that EPA, and other federal agencies, often have employees with a range of scientific backgrounds and experiences. If you are interested in working as a scientist or public health professional for the federal agency, it is helpful to learn about specific programmatic work the agencies do and see if your experience might be relevant.
You can connect with Adam and other Rollins alumni through our Rollins Alumni LinkedIn Group and Emory Connect, Emory’s mobile and online community.