Professor Emeritus
Robin Whyatt, DrPH
- Professor Emeritus
Dr. Robin M. Whyatt, focuses her research on effects of environmental exposures during pregnancy and early childhood. This has included molecular epidemiologic research on prenatal exposures to ambient air pollution and cigarette smoking in Poland and prenatal and early-life exposures to pesticides and endocrine disruptors among African American and Dominican mothers and newborns from New York City. In her capacity as deputy director of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health (CCCEH) and co-director of the Exposure and Biomarkers Core of the CCCEH, she is following the mothers and newborns in the CCCEH longitudinal birth cohort from pregnancy through ages 11 years to evaluate effects of non-persistent pesticides on birth outcomes and neurocognitive development and endocrine disruptors (phthalates and bisphenol A) on immune function, asthma etiology, and obesity.
David Evans, PhD
- Professor Emeritus
Dr. Dave Evans, is Professor of Clinical Sociomedical Sciences at the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and the Mailman School of Public Health. Dr. Evans has extensive experience conducting research to improve the health status of minority children and reduce asthma morbidity through the development of educational programs for both patients and health professionals. Since 2002, Dr. Evans has co-authored nine publications on integrated pest management interventions to reduce residential pest populations safely, and environmental education as a component of asthma management for children. His recent work focuses on health education program for students with asthma that includes use of diaries to document environmental exposures associated with emergent asthma symptoms, and shows that education about environmental factors can play a part in improving health. Overall, he has 30 years of research experience in developing effective methods for teaching patients and health care professionals about asthma and environment issues. He was one of the developers of Open Airways for Schools, a school-based program for children with asthma aged 8-11 years that is now widely used in public elementary schools nationwide, and of the Physician Asthma Care Education program, a four-hour educational program for pediatricians now being disseminated through the NHLBI website.