Spring 2020 Seminar Series (Pharm 848-S/ENV 848-S)
Duke Integrated Toxicology & Environmental Health Program
Thursday, February 13, 2020, 11:45 am – 1:00 pm, Field Auditorium, Grainger Hall
JANE CLOUGHERTY, Sc.D.
Drexel University
Differential susceptibility to air pollution by chronic psychosocial stress
There are persistent environmental health disparities by race and socioeconomic position (SEP) – owing to both higher pollution exposures and greater susceptibility in minority and / or lower-SEP communities. The “causal” aspects of SEP underlying these susceptibilities, however, remain unidentified, and thus health disparities remain unexplained and difficult to address. Evidence suggests that chronic stress – which impacts immune, endocrine, and metabolic function – may mediate some portion of this SEP-related susceptibility. Dr. Clougherty will review recent evidence on differential susceptibility to environmental pollution by chronic stress, with emphasis on respiratory and cardiovascular outcomes.
BIOGRAPHY: Jane E. Clougherty, MSc ScD is an Associate Professor at the Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health. Dr. Clougherty completed her doctorate and post-doctoral training at the Harvard School of Public Health, worked at New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene from 2008-2010, and was faculty at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health from 2010-2016.
An interdisciplinary Environmental Health Scientist, Dr. Clougherty’s research focuses on the combined health effects of chronic social stressors and air pollution exposures. To that end, she has designed and implemented a number of studies on intra-urban variation in air pollution and source apportionment. She is Principal Investigator on several EPA- and NIH-funded studies, including an R01 using geographic information systems (GIS)-based methods to examine how social and environmental exposures may alter the efficacy of pharmaceutical interventions for asthma in clinical trials, a Health Effects Institute (HEI)-funded grant on the combined effects of community stressors and multiple pollutant exposures on cardiovascular events, and an R01 on extreme temperature and children’s health.