| Speakers |
| John Balmes MD Professor of Medicine Emeritus University of California San Francisco Dr. Balmes is Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and Professor of Environmental Health Sciences Emeritus in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley). He is a member of the faculty of the UCSF Division of Occupational, Environmental and Climate Medicine and the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. At UC Berkeley, he is one of the Principal Investigators of the Children’s Health and Air Pollution Study (CHAPS) in Fresno, California. Dr. Balmes has been studying the effects of occupational and environmental agents on respiratory, cardiovascular, immunologic, and metabolic health for over 40 years. He was appointed Physician Member of the California Air Resources Board in 2008. | |
| Rahmat Balogun DO, MS, MPH Medical Director Occupational Health Services, Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine Division of Occupational, Environmental and Climate Medicine, UC San Francisco Dr. Rahmat Balogun has been on faculty at UCSF in the Department of Medicine, Division of Occupational, Environmental and Climate Medicine since 2017. She has been practicing Clinical Occupational and Environmental Medicine and currently serves as Medical Director of Occupational Health Services for UCSF. Her clinical practice includes seeing patients in both her Occupational Medicine practice and Integrative Medicine - Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine practice. | |
| Cristina Banks PhD Director Interdisciplinary Center for Healthy Workplaces, UC Berkeley Dr. Cristina Banks is the Associate Director of the California Labor Laboratory, a NIOSH Total Worker Health Center of Excellence at University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Banks also directs the Interdisciplinary Center for Healthy Workplaces at the University of California, Berkeley, where she leads an interdisciplinary team of scholars and practitioners in innovative research projects and in the distribution of state-of-the-art information for creating healthy workplaces. In addition, Dr. Banks directs the Workplace Mental Health Initiative at the Haas School of Business at Berkeley. She is President of the Society for Total Worker Health and is an elected Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology. | |
| Max Blumberg MD, MPH Assistant Professor of Medicine Division of Occupational, Environmental and Climate Medicine, UC San Francisco Dr. Max Blumberg is an occupational and environmental medicine specialist who primarily treats patients with work related injuries or illnesses across UCSF university and hospitals. He earned his medical degree from the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biological Sciences, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. He completed a residency in occupational and environmental medicine at UCSF. He has a master of public health degree from the University of California, Berkeley. In addition to caring for patients, Blumberg advocates for the well-being of health care workers. As associate medical director of UCSF Occupational Health Services, he strives to improve employee health and to prevent injuries and illnesses for everyone working at UCSF. He also teaches students and residents in the OEM training program at UCSF. | |
| Robert Cohen MD Clinical Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Science UIC School of Public Health, Chicago, IL Dr. Robert Cohen is Professor of Medicine and Director of the Occupational Lung Disease Program at Northwestern University. He is also Clinical Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Illinois School of Public Health. His major research interests are occupational lung disease, particularly mineral dust exposed workers. He has served as a consultant to agencies of the United States government in areas of mining related health issues including the Respiratory Health Division of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, NIOSH, Mine Safety and Health Administration, and the Division of Coal Mine Workers Compensation. He has been a US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health certified B-reader since 1998 and collaborated to develop a new teaching syllabus and exam for B readers in the United States and select new standard images for the International Labour Office. He has worked extensively internationally in the area of medical surveillance for coal mine dust and silica exposed workers. He has worked on projects in Ukraine, Colombia, Argentina, and most recently has been working with Queensland and New South Wales State Government agencies to review and improve their coal mine workers health scheme. | |
| Kristin J. Cummings MD, MPH Chief, Occupational Health Branch California Department of Public Health Kristin Cummings, MD, MPH is Chief of the Occupational Health Branch of the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). Prior to joining CDPH, she served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer, Medical Officer, and Branch Chief in the Respiratory Health Division of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Occupational Medicine and is a member of the Standing Committee on Personal Protective Equipment for Workplace Safety and Health of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Her research interests include inhalational exposures and respiratory health of workers, with a particular emphasis on occupational health disparities. | |
| Rupali Das MD, MPH Clinical Professor of Medicine; Sr. Vice President, Medical Director Division of Occupational, Environmental and Climate Medicine, UC San Francisco; Zenith Insurance Company Dr. Rupali Das is Clinical Professor of Medicine at the Division of Occupational, Environmental, and Climate Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, and Senior Vice President and Medical Director at Zenith Insurance Company. Dr. Das is founder and Past Chair of the Western Occupational and Environmental Medical Association (WOEMA) Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Committee. She has spoken widely on the importance of JEDI to ensure occupational and environmental health. Dr. Das has held numerous leadership roles with the California state government, including the Department of Industrial Relations, Department of Public Health and the California Environmental Protection Agency. She is a member of American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine’s (ACOEM’s) Board of Directors, member of ACOEM’s International Strategic Plan Task Force, and Past President of WOEMA. Dr. Das received an MD from the University of Illinois, Chicago, and an MPH from the University of California, Berkeley. She completed a fellowship in Occupational and Environmental Medicine at UCSF, is board certified in Internal Medicine and Preventive Medicine/Occupational Medicine, and is an ACOEM Fellow. She mentors high-achieving undergraduate students from underserved communities as part of the Thrive Scholars program. She is a board trustee of Cal Performances at UC Berkeley, which promotes the performing arts, especially among underserved students in the community and explores the connections between science and the arts. | |
| Sandra Jo Domeracki RN, MSN, FNP-BC, COHN-S, FAAOHN Clinical Professor of Nursing Community Health Systems, UC San Francisco School of Nursing Sandra Jo Domeracki is a Nurse Practitioner at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Health Care System (SFVAHCS), Employee Occupational Health Services, and Clinical Professor with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Nursing. She is also a Doctoral Candidate in the UCSF School of Nursing’s PhD program. She has been a Family Nurse Practitioner for many years, and has been working in occupational health much of this time, primarily in hospital-based occupational health clincis. | |
| Timur Durrani MD, MPH, MBA Clinical Professor of Medicine, Associate Chief for Clinical Services Division of Occupational, Environmental and Climate Medicine, UC San Francisco Dr. Timur S. Durrani is a Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), serving as the Associate Chief of Occupational, Environmental and Climate Medicine. He is board-certified in Family Medicine, Preventive Medicine, Occupational Medicine, and Medical Toxicology. Dr. Durrani's clinical practice includes providing outpatient consultations for medical toxicology and caring for acutely poisoned patients. He is the director of the Western States Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (funded by the U.S EPA and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry). His academic interests span occupational, environmental, reproductive, and pediatric toxicology, as well as clinical pharmacology. Dr. Durrani teaches medical, nursing and pharmacy students, as well as various graduate trainees. He is the faculty of record for the Occupational Toxicology at UCSF and he also precepts residents and fellows at UCSF and during industrial hygiene site visits. He has publications in basic science and public health disciplines and has presented on neurotoxicology. He has also volunteered his medical expertise internationally and served with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. | |
| Sheiphali Ghandi MD, MPH, CTropMed® Assistant Professor of Medicine Division of Occupational, Environmental and Climate Medicine, UC San Francisco Sheiphali Gandhi, MD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor at the University of California San Francisco in the Divisions of Occupational, Environmental and Climate Medicine and Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep, and Allergy Medicine. She is a dual-boarded pulmonologist and occupational medicine physician specializing in occupational and environmental respiratory disease. She attends in the UCSF Occupational and Environmental Medicine specialty practice with an emphasis on occupational respiratory diseases and toxicology. Her research concentrates on the epidemiology of interstitial lung disease, including pneumoconiosis, and the occupational contributions to health disparities. | |
| Sam Goldman MD, MPH Professor of Clinical Medicine Division of Occupational, Environmental and Climate Medicine, UC San Francisco Dr. Goldman is Emeritus Professor in the Division of Occupational, Environmental and Climate Medicine at UCSF, and an investigator at the San Francisco VA Health Care System. He studied neuroscience at the University of Michigan, medicine at the University of Texas-Houston, and trained in Preventive Medicine and Environmental Health at UC Berkeley. In the prior century, he was a clinician in the Workers Compensation clinic at SFGH, and more recently in Environmental Medicine at the SFVA. His research career has focused on the environmental epidemiology of Parkinson’s disease and related disorders, particularly the role of pesticides and solvents and their interaction with genetic susceptibility factors. In addition to ongoing research, Dr. Goldman has begun an intensive study of the foods, wines, and lifestyle of southern Spain. | |
| Matthew Gribble PhD, DABT Associate Professor of Medicine Division of Occupational, Environmental and Climate Medicine, UC San Francisco Matthew Gribble is the Associate Chief for Research in Occupational, Environmental and Climate Medicine at UCSF, co-Director and lead academic partner of a Tribally Led Center for Oceans and Human Health, and founding Director of the UCSF Center for Oceans & Human Health. His research program bridges environmental epidemiology, ecotoxicology, environmental psychology, and other environmental health sciences. | |
| Carisa Harris PhD, CPE Professor of Medicine; Director Division of Occupational, Environmental and Climate Medicine, UC San Francisco; Center for Environmental and Occupational Health, UC Berkeley Carisa Harris, PhD, CPE is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco, and in the School of Public Health at the University of California at Berkeley. She is also Director of the Northern California Center for Occupational and Environmental Health and Director of the UCSF/UCB Ergonomics Research & Graduate Training Program. Dr. Harris received her PhD in Environmental Health Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley and teaches a variety of classes including Occupational Biomechanics and Industrial Engineering Human Factors Design. Dr. Harris and her team performs research in a variety of areas focused on understanding and preventing work related injuries and improving human performance, productivity and health. Additionally, her team is developing a variety of exposure assessment devices (wearables) for primary and secondary prevention purposes and performs various intervention studies on occupational tasks with high risk of musculoskeletal injuries. The lab has a history of performing research in the construction, computer, medical, hotel and manufacturing sectors. | |
| Robert Harrison MD, MPH Clinical Professor of Medicine; Public Health Medical Officer Division of Occupational, Environmental and Climate Medicine, UC San Francisco; California Department of Public Health Dr. Harrison is a Public Health Medical Officer with the California Department of Public Health Occupational Health Branch and Clinical Professor at the University of California, San Francisco in the Division of Occupational, Environmental and Climate Medicine. He established the UCSF Occupational Health Services where he has diagnosed and treated thousands of work and environmental injuries and illnesses. He has designed and implemented numerous medical monitoring programs for workplace exposures, and has consulted widely with employers, health care professionals, and labor organizations on the prevention of work-related injuries and illnesses. Dr. Harrison has led many work and environmental investigations of disease outbreaks. He has served as a technical and scientific consultant to Federal OSHA and CDC/NIOSH, and was a member of the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board. His research interests include the collection and analyses of California and national data on the incidence of work-related injuries and illnesses. Dr. Harrison has authored or co-authored more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles, and more than 40 book chapters/contributed articles/letters to the editor. He is the co-editor of the most recent edition of the textbook Occupational and Environmental Medicine (McGraw-Hill Education, New York, NY, 2021). | |
| Reza Hosseini MD, MPH Assistant Professor SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY Reza Hosseini, MD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Department of Family Medicine at SUNY Upstate Medical University and Medical Director of the Central and Eastern New York Occupational Health Clinical Center. He also serves as a Research Collaborator in Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Hosseini’s work bridges clinical practice, education, and research in occupational and environmental health. His research focuses on inhalational exposures, chronic respiratory disease, and healthcare service utilization, with recent studies examining military exposures outside deployment zones. His scholarship has been published in leading journals including JAMA Network Open, Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), European Heart Journal (EHJ), and Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA). He has presented his work at major scientific meetings, including the American Thoracic Society. As Medical Director, Dr. Hosseini directs a regional program funded by the New York State Department of Health, providing specialized clinical services, outreach, and prevention initiatives for workers across 34 counties. His leadership has secured more than $9 million in grant funding to support occupational health services and community engagement in Central and Eastern New York. In addition to his clinical and leadership roles, Dr. Hosseini teaches medical and public health students in occupational and environmental medicine and serves as a reviewer for journals in occupational health and cardiology. | |
| Margaret Murray MD, MS, MPH Public Health Medical Officer Cal/OSHA Margaret Murray, MD serves as a Public Health Medical Officer at Cal/OSHA in Oakland, California, overseeing occupational safety and health throughout the state of California. Concurrently she also sees patients and mentors medical students at the UCSF Family Medicine clinic and teaches residents in the UCSF Occupational and Environmental Medicine Residency. She received her B.A. from Duke University and her M.D. from Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She is boarded in family medicine and occupational medicine. | |
| Gina Solomon MD, MPH Professor of Medicine, Chief Division of Occupational, Environmental and Clinical Medicine, UC San Francisco Gina Solomon is the Chief of Occupational, Environmental and Climate Medicine at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). At UCSF, Dr. Solomon oversees clinical occupational health activities at three hospital sites, leads research efforts in environmental health, and directs the Occupational and Environmental Medicine (OEM) residency program. She is also the Principal Investigator of the Western States Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit. Dr. Solomon was previously the Deputy Secretary for Science and Health at the California Environmental Protection Agency. She also worked at the Public Health Institute (PHI) where she established and led the Achieving Resilient Communities (ARC) project to develop actionable interventions to reduce climate change impacts in farmworker communities. Early in her career, Dr. Solomon was at the Natural Resources Defense Council where she led their environmental assessments after Hurricane Katrina and after the BP Gulf Oil Spill. Dr. Solomon received her bachelor’s degree from Brown University, her M.D. from Yale, and did her M.P.H. and her residency and fellowship training in internal medicine and occupational and environmental medicine at Harvard. | |
| Edward Yelin PhD Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Health Policy UC San Francisco Dr. Yelin is an Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Health Policy at UCSF. He is the Director of the California Labor Laboratory, a NIOSH Center of Excellence in Total Worker Health. The Laboratory is focused on the impact of changes in the nature of employment for the welfare of the working age population. Dr. Yelin has long been doing research on how the nature of work affects the health of the working age population and, conversely, how persons with severe health problems function in the contemporary labor market. | |
