School of Public Health

Adrienne Katner is the Principal Investigator of the study. She directs all aspects of the study. Dr. Katner’s research focuses on evaluating how effective federal drinking water regulations and prevailing public health guidelines are in reducing water contaminant exposures.

Amy Stelly leads the efforts of our community partner, Claiborne Avenue Alliance Design Studio. She is evaluating the impacts of proposed development for the area. Amy Stelly is an urban planner, designer and artist in New Orleans where her family has lived for four generations.

Beth Butler leads the efforts of our community partners, Southern United Neighborhoods and A Community Voice. She is recruiting residents in the area to participate in the environmental and biological samples; and will be collecting feedback from residents on community and government plans for the area. Beth is a veteran community organizer and non-profit director with A Community Voice ACORN. She acts as a Hub Director for Anthropocene Alliance, board director of ACORN Global Enterprises, and board member of Southern United Neighborhoods.

Dr. Daniel Harrington

Dr. Harrington is monitoring the air quality around the Claiborne Expressway to characterize the levels of pollution in the area. Dr. Harrington is a Certified Industrial Hygienist with expertise in researching human exposure to environmental hazards, in particular inhalation exposures.

Dr. Evrim Oral

Dr. Evrim Oral is investigating potential health impacts of environmental conditions in the area. Dr. Oral  serves as a Co-investigator on several NIH funded projects such as Quality of Life in Prostate Cancer Project (QPCaP) and The Women and Their Children’s Health (WaTCH) study. She is also currently serving as an Associate Editor for the Scandinavian Journal of Statistics.

Dr. Jovanny Zabaleta

Dr. Jovanny Zabaleta will be evaluating biological samples to investigate early markers of disease. As an Associate Professor of Research in the Department of Pediatrics, Dr. Zabaleta focuses his research on the molecular mechanisms of cancer development in gastric and other cancers. He also directs the Translational Genomics Core laboratory within the Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center.

Dr. Lucio Miele

Dr. Lucio Miele will be investigating associations between environmental pollution and biomarkers of disease. Dr. Miele’s research interests are cancer precision medicine, genomics, Notch signaling, cancer health disparities, immunogenomics/experimental therapeutics, biomedical informatics, COVID-19 including PASC, and machine learning.

Dr. Kari Brisolara

Dr. Kari Brisolara is evaluating the impact and outcomes of this study. Dr. Kari Brisolara, ScD, MSPH is a Professor of Environmental Health, Climate and Sustainability and the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, School of Public Health, New Orleans, Louisiana. Dr. Brisolara is an environmental health scientist specializing in waste treatment and reuse.

Dr. Ed Trapido

Dr. Ed Trapido serves in an advisory role for the project. Dr. Trapido is a cancer epidemiologist at LSUHSC School of Public Health, Deputy Director for Population Science in the Stanley S Scott Cancer Center, the Coordinator for LSU Health Sciences Center’s research on the Gulf Oil Spill, and the Chair of the School of Public Health’s Evaluation Committee.

Dr. MD Shahinoor Rahman

Investigator Dr. Rahman’s expertise spans cutting-edge GIS and remote sensing applications in public health, natural hazard analysis, and urban and environmental studies. He leverages novel approaches and applications of machine learning, geospatial data science, and spatial analytics to examine the causes of—and innovative solutions to—some of our world’s most pressing environmental challenges. In this project, he will be engaged in mapping and spatial analysis to investigate the nexus of environmental hazards, exposures, and health disparities.

Stephania A. Cormier, PhD

Stephania A. Cormier, PhD, serves as the Associate Vice President for Research and Economic Development and holds the Wiener Endowed Chair and Professorship at Louisiana State University. Her expertise is pulmonary immunology, focusing on the role of age and the environment in immunity. Dr. Cormier graduated with an Honors Baccalaureate in biology and chemistry from the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana – Lafayette) and a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology from Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans.

Dr. Jiri Adamec

Dr. Adamec is a full professor of the Department of Interdisciplinary Oncology, School of Medicine at the LSUHSC-NO. He also holds appointment in the Cancer Center and serves as the Director of Core Laboratories. His expertise is in proteomics and metabolomics and identifying potential biomarkers.

Mohamed Mohamed

Mohamed Mohamed is working with Dr. Oral to investigate potential associations between air and other environmental pollutants and adverse health outcomes. Mohamed S. Mohamed is a Biostatistics PhD student at LSUHSC. He graduated from medical school in University of Khartoum, in Sudan, then completed his master’s degree in community medicine from the same school.

Saheba Cuccia

Saheba Cuccia is assisting Dr. Katner in managing all aspects of the study, from environmental sample collection, project evaluation and reporting, and community outreach. Saheba recently graduated from Loyola University Chicago with an MS in Environmental Science with a concentration in Geographic Information Systems.