UCSF National Center of Excellence in Women's Health

Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment

About PRHE

Mission

PRHE’s mission is to create a healthier environment for human reproduction and development through advancing scientific inquiry, clinical care and health policies that prevent exposures to harmful chemicals in our environment.

A Unique Approach

PRHE works at the intersection of science, medicine, policy and community. We conduct targeted research and translate scientific findings in order to expand clinical practice and to advance science-based policy solutions.

We collaborate with health sciences, public health and environmental health experts. We also connect these experts to key leaders from government, nongovernmental organizations and health affected and environmental groups.

We believe that engaging multiple disciplines and constituencies generates critical and unique perspectives which, when combined, only strengthen efforts in science, health care and policy.

History

Dr. Linda C. Giudice founded PRHE in 2007 in order to meet the need for continued environmental reproductive health research and for the translation of science into preventive policy action, enhanced health care and heightened public awareness.

Linda Giudice, MD, PhD is the Chair of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences. Dr. Giudice is a biochemist, an obstetrician, gynecologist and reproductive endocrinologist whose research has focused on endometrial biology, placental-uterine interactions and environmental impacts on reproductive health.

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Organization

PRHE is housed within the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, in the UCSF School of Medicine, one of the nation's most prestigious medical schools. The Department is renowned for promoting cutting-edge reproductive science research, extending the frontiers of multidisciplinary women's health care and professional education, advocating for women's health at local, state and national levels, and engaging community involvement.

PRHE is also a core program of the National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health, which is dedicated to transforming health and improving the lives of women and girls through multidisciplinary and collaborative programs of research, clinical care, training, leadership development and community engagement.

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Advisory Committee

Martha Arquello, Physicians for Social Responsibility - Los Angeles
Claire Brindis, University of California, San Francisco Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies
Elaine Faustman, University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine
Russ Hauser, Harvard University School of Public Health
Pat Hunt, Washington State University Center for Reproductive Biology
Pete Myers, Environmental Health Sciences
Karen Pierce, Bay View Hunter's Point Health and Environmental Assessment Task Force
Eveline Shen, Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice

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Partners

A key PRHE partner is the national Collaborative for Health and the Environment (CHE). In early 2007, UCSF-PRHE and CHE presented the Summit on Environmental Challenges to Reproductive Health and Fertility in San Francisco, CA. CHE also collaborated with Dr. Giudice to convene the Understanding Environmental Contaminants and Human Fertility Compromise: Science and Strategy workshop at the Vallombrosa Retreat Center in 2005.
Within UCSF, our partners include members of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, the renowned National Center of Excellence in Women's Health, the Center for Reproductive Sciences, the Women's Health Clinical Research Center, and the Center for Reproductive Health Research and Policy.

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Staff

Tracey Woodruff, Ph.D., MPH is the Director of PRHE and an Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences and Pediatrics. She has done extensive research and policy development on environmental health issues, with a particular emphasis on early-life development. Her research areas include perinatal health effects from air pollution, developing the first national characterization of air toxics across the US, children’s health risks, and environmental health indicators. She has authored numerous scientific publications. She recently departed from the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), where she was a senior scientist and policy advisor in the Office of Policy, Economics, and Innovation. While at US EPA Tracey was the principle author of two EPA reports on children’s environmental health indicators. She also has worked on critical science policy issues, including participation in risk assessment review and development, and general policy development. Tracey is a coauthor of the 2005 US EPA guidance addressing childhood susceptibility to carcinogens for use in risk assessment. She is an Associate Editor of Environmental Health Perspectives.

Jackie Schwartz, MPH is a Research Scientist and focuses on PRHE's research activities and communications, authoring PRHE's recent report, Shaping Our Legacy. Prior to joining PRHE, Jackie was a research associate at the Center for Children's Environmental Health Research at U.C. Berkeley, and served as a public health assessor and epidemiologist for the Environmental Health Investigations Branch of the California Department of Health Services. Her research has focused on evaluating the association between environmental exposures and health outcomes in both adults and children, including identifying risk factors for exposure to pesticides and other endocrine disrupting chemicals.

Patrice Sutton, MPH is a Research Scientist and is spearheading the From Advancing Science to Ensuring Prevention (FASTEP) project. Patrice has over 20 years of experience in occupational and environmental health research, industrial hygiene, public health practice, policy development and community-based advocacy. As a contractor to California's state health department from 1987 to 2006, she was responsible for conducting all aspects of research investigations spanning a disparate range of issues, including lead poisoning, tuberculosis, asthma, and pesticide-illness. She has extensive experience collaborating with directly-impacted workplace and community-based populations, labor, and governmental and non-governmental organizations in the development of research strategies and policy recommendations. She also has extensive experience as a volunteer in support of communities and workers impacted by the nuclear weapons production cycle and has published over thirty peer-reviewed scientific articles and government technical reports.

Amber Wise, PhD is a Science-Policy Postdoc, investigating new ways to incorporate biomarkers into risk assessment processes and crafting a policy framework for risk assessment of nanotechnology products. Amber recently completed her PhD in Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, and comes to PRHE from the Union of Concerned Scientists, where she worked in their Scientific Integrity Program.

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