Accomplishments: Department of Environmental and Occupational Health

Mark Buttner and Patricia Cruz (both Environmental & Occupational Health) received a 12-month, $1.26 million award through Nevada Health and Human Services to conduct molecular microbiological environmental monitoring and research. This project will support a doctoral student's dissertation research.
Lung-Wen Antony Chen (Environmental and Occupational Health) and colleagues have published an article, "Apportionment of Vehicle Fleet Emissions by Linear Regression, Positive Matrix Factorization, and Emission Modeling," on the journal Atmosphere. Real-world emission factors for different vehicle types and their contributions to…
Mark Buttner and Patricia Cruz (both Environmental & Occupational Health) received a 12-month, $130,000 award from a private industry sponsor to conduct test chamber research on the survival of airborne bacteria and viruses.The funding will support a full-time research technician and serve as a thesis project for a master of public health (MPH…
Francisco Sy (Environmental & Occupational Health) has been appointed as a member to the Public Health Advisory Board (PHAB) by the Southern Nevada District Board of Health. This appointment is effective July 1 and is a two-year term. The PHAB advises the Board of Health on matters related to local public health planning and policy. …
Mark Buttner, Patricia Cruz, Elizabeth Detrick, and Jessica Gunter (all Environmental & Occupational Health), and Steven Medley (The George Washington University) co-authored an article, "Evaluation of Two Surface Sampling Methods for the Detection of Bacillus Atrophaeus Aerosolized in a Test Chamber" in the Journal of Microbiological Methods…
Shawn Gerstenberger (Public Health) and Max Gakh (Environmental & Occupational Health) were recently recognized among Southern Nevada Health District's 2022 Public Health Heroes. The Southern Nevada Health District (SNHD) defines a public health hero as an individual or organization that embodies one or more of the essential functions of…
Karen Callahan (Environmental & Occupational Health) and Sfurti Maheshwari (Public Health) along with co-authors published an article on "Elevated Breast Cancer Mortality among Highly Educated Asian American Women" in the journal PLOS One.  The study found that postmenopausal breast cancer (PMBC) mortality for higher educated Asian women…
Courtney Coughenour (Environmental & Occupational Health) was interviewed by Insider for an article on "What Causes Road Rage? Big, Expensive Cars." which highlighted a 2020 study by School of Public Health faculty.
Kavita Batra (Medicine), Brian Labus (Epidemiology and Biostatistics), Jennifer R. Pharr, and Emylia Terry (both Environmental and Occupational Health) published a study, "Assessing Psychological Impact of COVID-19 among Parents of Children Returning to K-12 Schools: A U.S. Based Cross-Sectional Survey," in the Healthcare journal. The purpose…
Amruta Godbole, Sheniz Moonie, Ann Vuong (all Epidemiology & Biostatistics), Courtney Coughenour (Environmental & Occupational Health) along with Cai Zhang of Tongji Hospital and Aimen Chen of the University of Pennsylvania, published a paper on "Exploratory analysis of the associations between neonicotinoids and measures of adiposity…
Kavita Batra ('20 Ph.D. Public Health and Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine) with Farooq Abdulla (University Medical Center of Southern Nevada), and Patricia Cruz, Chad L. Cross, Neeraj Bhandari, Jennifer R. Pharr, and Mark P. Buttner (all Environmental & Occupational Health), co-authored an article, "Healthcare Utilization and Expenditures of…
Dieu-My Tran (Nursing), and Chad L. Cross (Environmental and Occupational Health), along with Iris Martinez, '21 BS Nursing, and Dr. Yumei Feng Earley, contributed to the article "MOBILE Intervention Pilot Study in College Students With Elevated Blood Pressure" recently published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing. The study explored…