Our Team

The Children's Environmental Health Center (CEHC) is directed by Philip J. Landrigan, a renowned pediatrician and epidemiologist who has devoted his career to protecting children against environmental threats to health. To further the work pioneered by Dr. Landrigan, CEHC is comprised of an accomplished team of doctors, scientists, and researches, who specialize in environmental pediatrics. Our staff conducts research in children's environmental health and cares for children at Mount Sinai Hospital.

Director

Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc, FAAP
Director, CEHC
Dr. Landrigan is a renowned pediatrician and an international leader in public health and preventive medicine. He has devoted his career to protecting children against environmental threats to health. In the 1970s, Dr. Landrigan conducted pioneering research on lead toxicity at low levels, which helped to persuade the US government to mandate removal of lead from gasoline and paint. He directed the report “Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children” for the National Academy of Sciences, which was instrumental in securing passage of the Food Quality Protection Act – the only environmental law in the United States that contains explicit provisions for the protection of children. In addition, Dr. Landrigan is responsible for creating the unit that has evolved into the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) National Center for Environmental Health, was instrumental in helping to establish a new Office of Children's Health Protection, and has been a leader in developing and implementing the National Children’s Study.

Robert O. Wright, MD, MPH
Deputy Director, CEHC
Robert O. Wright, MD, MPH, is a pediatrician, epigeneticist, and environmental epidemiologist. His research focuses on environmental factors that influence children’s health and neurodevelopment ― specifically metal toxicity and its effects on the developing brain and reproductive health. As an interdisciplinary scientist, Dr. Wright combines fields such as medicine, genetics, epigenetics, and epidemiology to bridge communication gaps between these disciplines and conduct sophisticated research in children’s environmental health. Dr. Wright joined the faculty of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in August of this year; prior to joining Mount Sinai he was Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and an attending physician in the Emergency Department of Boston Children’s Hospital. At Mount Sinai, Dr. Wright directs the new Laboratory for Environmental Analytical Chemistry, an innovative facility that gives researchers the ability to analyze toxic chemicals and the molecular biomarkers they affect at a truly accelerated pace.

Faculty

Shanna H. Swan, PhD
Vice Chair for Research and Mentoring, Department of Preventive Medicine
Dr. Swan is an expert reproductive epidemiologist and the newest addition to the Children's Environmental Health Center. Her research focuses on endocrine disruptors -- a group of chemicals that mimic our body's normal hormones. Dr. Swan studies how exposures to these chemicals impact our children's development, particularly when a mom is exposed during pregnancy. Her studies were the first to show that common plasticizers (phthalates) can alter boys' development, research that led to the banning of these chemicals from children's toys. She has published over 150 papers in this area.

Barbara Brenner, DrPh, DSW
With a background in social work and public health, Dr. Brenner has worked at Mount Sinai for over 30 years. For over 20 of these years, she served as Mount Sinai’s Director of Community Relations, in addition to her work in the Departments of Preventive Medicine and Social Work. In addition to her role as co-principal investigator of “Growing Up Healthy in East Harlem,” Dr. Brenner has served on multiple boards in East Harlem, and she has received multiple awards for her commitment to community service. Her research interests include built environment and childhood obesity.

Luz Claudio, PhD, MS
Dr. Claudio’s research balances a focus environmental medicine with leadership in community outreach, education, and health policy development in New York City urban communities and in developing countries in Latin America. She also directs the International Training Program in Environmental and Occupational Health at Mount Sinai, and she serves on the Board of Scientific Counselors of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and the Council of Public Representatives for the National Institutes of Health.

Bambi Fisher, LCSW
Ms. Fisher is a licensed clinical social worker who has worked at Mount Sinai for over 15 years. She specializes in chronic illness management, preschool mental health consultation, and parental guidance. Ms. Fisher also serves as the Clinical and Outreach Coordinator at Mount Sinai’s Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU). She was influential in the development of Greening Mount Sinai, a grassroots initiative that promotes environmentally prudent policies at the Icahn School of Medicine.

Joel Forman, MD
Dr. Forman completed his residency and pediatric internship at Mount Sinai, where he received the Association of Attending Staff/Bella Trachtenberg Award for House Staff Excellence. After joining the pediatrics faculty, Dr. Forman worked with Dr. Landrigan to create a Pediatric Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU) at Mount Sinai. He now serves as the Program Director of the Pediatric Residency Program and Vice Chair for Education. His research interests include asthma, lead poisoning, and mercury toxicity.

Alice Freund, C.I.H., MSPH
Ms. Freund is an industrial hygienist at Mount Sinai’s Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU). Her research interests include air pollutants, indoor air quality, and occupational health. Ms. Freund also serves on the Board of Directors for the New Jersey Environmental Work Council and the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Healthcare Safety, among other professional organizations.

Maida P. Galvez, MD, MPH
After graduating from the Icahn School of Medicine, Dr. Galvez completed the three-year Fellowship in Pediatric Environmental Health at Mount Sinai. She now serves as the Medical Director of the Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU), practices pediatrics, and is the co-principal investigator of “Growing Up Healthy in East Harlem,” a community-based research project that examines the environmental determinants of childhood obesity. Dr. Galvez’s research interests include endocrine disruptors and the urban built environment and childhood obesity.

Elizabeth Garland, MD, MS

Luca Lambertini, PhD
Dr. Lambertini is a molecular biologist, who studies the biochemistry of the placenta and its affects on children's health and development. Dr. Lambertini joined the Icahn School of Medicine in 2006, where he began working on a genomic imprinting project. In 2008, CEHC began supporting Dr. Lambertini’s research, which allowed him to develop a new tool for sampling of the human placenta. Currently, Dr. Lambertini is working with a team of Mount Sinai researchers – including Dr. Landrigan – to create a pregnancy biobank at Mount Sinai. The biobank will collect and store placental tissue and umbilical cord blood from babies born at Mount Sinai. This provides our researchers with an incredibly valuable resource for studying prenatal exposures and their impact on neurodevelopment.

Perry Sheffield, MD
Dr. Sheffield is a pediatrician with a commitment to international community service. Before beginning medical school, Dr. Sheffield served as a Fulbright Scholar, where she conducted a biogas feasibility study in Madagascar. Dr. Sheffield continues to travel internationally to provide medical care to underserved communities.

Susan Teitelbaum, PhD
Dr. Teitelbaum is an epidemiologist whose research interests include endocrine disruptors, early puberty, and their relationship to breast cancer risk. Currently, Dr. Teitelbaum has three grants supported by National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) / National Cancer Institute (NCI) and one supported by National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health NIOSH. She is also the principal investigator on the project “Breast Cancer Genomics in Windows of Susceptibility to Endocrine Disruptors” and serves on a number of professional committees, including the epidemiology panel of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP).

Andrew C. Todd, PhD
Dr. Todd is a physicist who directs the Bone Lead X-Ray Fluorescence Laboratory at Mount Sinai, one of the country's leading centers for a novel technique for measuring long-term lead exposure. Dr. Todd has reviewed for prestigious publications like Environmental Research, American Public Health Association, Medical Physics, Journal of the American Medical Association, and Environmental Health Perspectives. He is also a Contributing Editor to the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.

Mary S. Wolff, PhD, M. Phil
Dr. Wolff joined Mount Sinai as a post-doctoral fellow in Environmental Medicine in 1974. Since then, her research has focused on application of biological markers to determine exposures of humans to chemicals that occur in the environment. She has been involved in studies on pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), lead poisoning, chemicals in breast milk, early puberty, and environmental exposures associated with breast cancer risk. Dr. Wolff is also the Director of the Center for Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research at Mount Sinai.

Norman Zuckerman, MS
Mr. Zuckerman is an industrial hygienist at Mount Sinai’s Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU). He has conducted extensive work on occupational exposures to environmental toxins and has published papers on controlling exposures to lead and crystalline silica.

Fellows in Pediatric Environmental Health

Kevin Chatham-Stephens, MD
Dr. Chatham-Stephens is a board-certified pediatrician who completed his residency in pediatrics at Oregon Health and Sciences University, where he also served as a Pediatric Chief Resident. Before coming to Mount Sinai, Dr. Chatham-Stephens worked as a hospitalist and general pediatrician. His research focuses on understanding the roles of exercise, diet and the built environment as risk factors for childhood obesity.

Geoffrey “Cappy” Collins, MD
Dr. Collins, a graduate of Icahn School of Medicine (MSSM), recently completed his pediatric residency at the University of Rochester. While at the Mount Sinai, he won the MSSM George James Traveling Scholar Award in 2008. He also won University of Rochester Creative Excellence Award in 2010, after founding Cyclopedia Rochester, a community organization that uses physical exercise to prevent behavioral issues, obesity, and chronic stress in adolescents. Apart from his extensive medical education and training, Dr. Collins holds a Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) in computer art.

Andrea Deierlein, PhD
Dr. Deierlein is an epidemiologist with a background in human nutrition and animal sciences. In her fellowship, Dr. Deierlein is interested in examining the effects of prenatal and early life exposures to nutrition and environmental toxins on the development of obesity and related conditions.

Sarah Evans, PhD
Sarah Evans, PhD, received her graduate degree in Neuroscience from the Weill Cornell Medical College. She currently studies how exposure to phthalates – a chemical found in cosmetics and personal care products – affect brain development. A mother of a four-year old, she is also involved in public advocacy efforts to protect our families from toxic chemicals, including work with the Coalition for a Safe and Health Connecticut.

Maya Leventer-Roberts, MD, MPH
Maya Leventer-Roberts, MD, MPH, is a pediatrician and postdoctoral fellow at the Children’s Environmental Health Center (CEHC). After graduating from the Yale School of Medicine in 2009, Dr. Leventer-Roberts completed a pediatric residency at the Ichan School of Medicine and Mount Sinai. She began her fellowship in environmental pediatrics in June 2012.

As a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Leventer-Roberts’ studies the environmental causes of obesity. In 2013, she will travel to Israel to work on two research studies. Her long-term goal is to be a bridge between the Children’s Environmental Health Center and the Israeli pediatric community — serving as an advocate for children’s environmental health in Israel.

Staff

Damiris Perez Agu, MPA
Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU) Program Coordinator

Katherine Southwick
CEHC Program Manager