Amy Padula, PhD, MSc
Interim Director
Dr. Amy Padula is the Interim Director for PRHE and is a faculty member in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences. She also leads PRHE’s postdoctoral scholars training program. She is a leading researcher on how air pollution and social disparities impact pregnancy outcomes. Dr. Padula is a recipient of the Outstanding New Environmental Scientist (ONES) R01 Award from the National Institute of Environmental Health Science to investigate the impact of wildfires and other biomass burning on preterm birth in California. She also leads the Smoke from wildfires in Pregnancy: Advancing Reproductive Knowledge (SPARK) study investigating wildfire exposures in relation to birth outcomes at USCF. She is a co-investigator of the NIH Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) study and is focused on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, psychosocial stress and birth outcomes as well as digital report back of chemical results to participants. In 2017, Dr. Padula was named one of the 20 Pioneers under 40 in Environmental Public Health by the Collaborative on Health and the Environment. She was recently awarded a fellowship from the Hamburg Institute for Advanced Study (2022-2023) and collaborates with the Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf, a University Medical Center in Hamburg, Germany. Prior to PRHE, she received her PhD in Epidemiology from the University of California, Berkeley, trained as a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University in the Department of Pediatrics and Division of Neonatology.
