Community-engaged Research

Natalie Rejto, postdoctoral researcher in the UW Center for One Health Research. Every year, nearly 2 million young Americans experience homelessness. 

Joth Davis adjusted his waders and stepped into the cool waters of Thorndyke Bay, his Crocs disappearing under a layer of thick, forest-green seaweed. Behind him, jagged Olympic peaks poked above the hilltops. Before him stretched 30 acres of oysters, clams and geoducks — the shellfish farm he’d run for 35 years.

New research from the UW and the Hazardous Waste Management Program (Haz Waste Program) in King County finds dangerously high levels of lead in traditional eyeliners worn by adults and children in local immigrant and refugee communities.  

DEOHS Assistant Professor Diana Ceballos. Degreasers are a common product in auto body and repair shops, used daily by workers to clean engines and car

Every day, hundreds of workers across Washington state are hurt on the job. Some lose their lives. Many of the industries that shaped the state — forestry, fishing, agriculture — are riddled with risk.

Cecilia MartindaleMS, Environmental Health SciencesHometownColorado Springs, COFuture plansPursuing a PhD in environmental health and working in public health practice.“We really need to consider how climate change is impacting environmental health hazards.”

Hannah DyeMS Thesis, Environmental Health SciencesHometownThousand Oaks, CAFuture plansApplying to medical school.

When University of Washington researchers discovered high rates of air pollution and childhood asthma in communities near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, the next step became urgently clear — how to help.

DEOHS Assistant Professor Diana Ceballos. “Get home safe” is one of the most commonly stated goals in worker health and safety.

The impacts of climate change on human health are severe: Extreme heat events put stress on the body, increasing the risk of heat stroke, hospitalization for heart disease, kidney failure and poor mental health. In the U.S., deaths due to extreme heat increased 117% from 1999 to 2023.

For the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS), 2024 was a year of behind-the-scenes change, as we thanked Professor Michael Yost for his 10-year tenure as department chair and welcomed

Dr. Jeremy Hess, UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) professor and climate researcher, knows how prolonged heat exposure can impact the body.

Explore a storymap about climate resilience in the Duwamish ValleyMore than a century ago, Seattle leaders set out to control and redirect the Duwamish River. They dredged the riverbed and dug out its twists and turns.

Maegan ChuaBS in Environmental Public HealthHometownKetchikan, AKInternship with:Public Health – Seattle & King County

Editor's note: Professor Michael Yost stepped down as chair of the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) at the end of August 2024, after serving a 10-year term. He retired August 1, 2025. We caught up with him as he ended his chair position to reflect on his time leading the department.

In the past several months, researchers in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) and their partners have received four awards from the UW Population Health Initiative to pursue research on the health impacts of emerging threats including extreme cold, sea level rise, extreme heat combined with wil

The same geologic forces that shaped Washington state hold the potential to devastate the Pacific Northwest. This reality necessitates thorough disaster planning to prepare the region to mitigate, respond to and recover from future catastrophes.

Nell ThompsonBS, Environmental Public HealthHometownLynnwood, WAFuture plansGetting a master's of public health.“The learning opportunities I've had at UW have been really inspiring.”- Nell Thompson

Joey TeresiMS, Environmental Health SciencesHometownChannahon, ILFuture plansAn environmental health or public health career in the public sector.“I’ve been lucky to have advisers in DEOHS that help me set lofty goals and meet those goals.”- Joey Teresi

Bob Wilbur thought he’d found a retirement home that would be a place of peace. Nestled against Admiralty Bay on the western edge of Whidbey Island, the three-story house is surrounded by trees and shoreline. It offers the kind of quiet that only an island can provide. Except when the Growlers fly. 

Kathleen Moloney, DEOHS research scientist. As unprecedented as the outbreak of COVID-19 felt, it was far from the first time a deadly disease has swept the globe. 

 

It might start with a slight scent of smoke from a faraway wildfire, and often ends with weeks-long warnings about hazardous air quality, calls to shelter indoors and lessons about how to build homemade air filters.

2023 has been a year of community resilience for the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS). Together with many partners, our students, faculty and staff spearheaded projects to help Pacific Northwest communities respond and adapt to extreme heat, flooding, wildfire smoke and other impacts of climate change.

Explore the storymap In the fall of 2022, our team of researchers from the Duwamish Valley Youth Corps, the Duwamish River Community Coalition (DRCC), the City of Seattle and the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences went door to door in the Se

Aesha Mokashi MS, Environmental Health Sciences Hometown Portland, OR Future plans Working as an environmental health scientist with King County and internationally.

Dr. Catherine Karr completed years of specialty training in pediatrics and can’t recall ever being taught about the issue of lead poisoning, which causes neurodevelopmental issues in children.

Four teams of researchers in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) and their collaborators recently received awards from the UW Population Health Initiative to pursue projects focused on the health impacts of military aircraft noise pollution, using drones to monitor harmful algal blooms, engaging youth in disaster planning and incorporating public health

Talk to Catherine Karr’s students, past and present, and you’ll hear a common refrain: she is deeply engaged and invested in their lives.