Our Leadership
Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH is the Director of and Alison S. Carlson Endowed Professor for PRHE and is a Professor in the UCSF Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences and the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies. She is a recognized expert on environmental pollution exposures and impacts on health, with a focus on pregnancy, infancy and childhood, and her innovations in translating and communicating scientific findings for clinical and policy audiences. She has authored numerous scientific publications and book chapters, and has been quoted widely in the press, including USA Today, the San Francisco Chronicle and The New York Times. Before joining UCSF, Dr. Woodruff was a senior scientist and policy advisor for the U.S. EPA's Office of Policy. She is an Associate Editor of Environmental Health Perspectives. She was appointed by the governor of California in 2012 to the Science Advisory Board of the Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant (DART) Identification Committee.
Diana J. Laird, PhD is Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences and Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCSF, where she runs a basic science laboratory. She is a geneticist and developmental biologist whose research focuses on the formation of the reproductive system, the earliest precursors of egg and sperm, and their interaction with the environment. In 2010 she was a recipient of the NIH New Innovator Award.
Annemarie Charlesworth, MA is the Associate Director of the Environmental Health Initiative (EHI) and Director of the Clinical Outreach and Translation team. She brings over 15 years of program evaluation, design and implementation expertise to the EHI.
Yogi Hale Hendlin, PhD is a Research Associate for the Environmental Health Initiative. He works on the public health implications of the Chemical Industry and Fossil Fuel Industry documents housed at UCSF's Industry Documents Library, and brings over a decade of experience working with industry documents.
Our Partners
UCSF is a world‐renowned health sciences campus dedicated to advancing health worldwide. As the leading public university for NIH funding, the UCSF medical school and graduate school consistently rank among the best in the country. UCSF is also a source of innovative ideas that generate scientific and medical breakthroughs, and houses expertise in diseases of childhood and aging linked to environmental exposures: cancer, diabetes, asthma, and neurodevelopmental disorders.
The EHI leverages the existing research and research translation expertise of academic partners all across the UCSF campus including the following:
- Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment (PRHE)
- Center for Reproductive Sciences
- Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences
- Office of Sustainability
- Research Department Office
- Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor & Provost
- Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education
- Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies
- Sugar Stress Environment and Weight Initiative
- Department of Pediatrics
- Department of Neurology
- Department of Medicine
- Global Health Sciences
- Sabre‐Sandler Asthma Basic Research Center
- UCSF Diabetes Center
By embedding environmental health within the fabric of UCSF, we will harness the power of the health sciences to tackle a growing problem of our time. Ultimately, the integration of environment with health care is essential to the UCSF vision of holistic treatment. The integration of environment with public health prevention is essential to build lasting changes that address the impacts of harmful chemical exposures on health at a global level.
EHI builds from robust and existing partnerships that developed through the Program on Reproductive Health and the Center for Reproductive Sciences. This includes a network of academics, federal and state partners (USEPA, NIH, CDC/NCEH, CalEPA, California Department of Public Health, IARC); Health Professional Societies (the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Society for Reproductive Medicine, and the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics among others); and nongovernmental organizations both across the U.S. and in Europe. Our partnerships facilitate connections between the groups to strengthen a multi‐disciplinary research strategy, a shared understanding of the science, and enhanced ability to communicate the science effectively and efficiently.