Rachel Morello-Frosch is professor at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health and the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management. Her research examines race and class determinants of environmental health among diverse communities in the United States. A focus of her current work is assessing the relationship between social inequality, psychosocial stress and how these factors may interact with chemical exposures to amplify pollution/health outcome relationships and produce environmental health inequalities. Much of her work has examined this question in the context of ambient air pollution and indoor chemical exposures, prenatal exposures and effects on birth outcomes and children’s health, often using community-based participatory research approaches for data collection and risk communication. As part of this work she explores the scientific challenges and bioethical considerations associated with exposure assessment and chemical biomonitoring research in economically and racially marginalized communities. She has also examined ways in which measures of material deprivation (e.g. poverty) and social inequality (e.g. racial residential segregation) may modify observed relationships between pollution exposures and poor perinatal outcomes such as low birth weight and risk of preterm delivery. Finally, in collaboration with scientific colleagues and regulatory scientists, she has worked to develop scientifically valid and transparent tools for assessing the cumulative impacts of chemical and non-chemical stressors to advance regulatory decision-making and environmental policy in ways that address the disparate impacts of chemical and non-chemical stressors in vulnerable communities. She is assessing the application of these methods for implementation of climate change policies in California. Her work is funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Science Foundation, US EPA, California Air Resources Board, California Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, Wellness Foundation, and the California Endowment, among others. She has published widely in the environmental health, social science, public health and risk assessment fields.
