The Environmental and Occupational Health Seminar (Env H 580) is a department-sponsored seminar series for students, staff and faculty; practicing professionals in the environmental and occupational health fields; and the public. This seminar highlights the rich diversity of our department and is an opportunity to hear from locally, nationally and internationally known scientists, practitioners and policymakers on issues of current scientific importance. For those not enrolled in ENVH 580, we welcome you to join us in-person, but you may also join us via Zoom by registering here. 

Speaker: 

Mary D. Willis, Ph.D., M.P.H., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Boston University School of Public Health. Her expertise lies at the intersection of environmental epidemiology, spatial exposure assessment, and applied data science. Much of her work also leverages econometric-based causal inference methods. She is particularly interested in how epidemiological studies can be best designed to inform health-protective policy decisions. To date, Dr. Willis has primarily focused on how on exposures from the energy sector (e.g., oil and gas development, traffic-related air pollution) and other aspects of the built environment (e.g., green space, neighborhood disadvantage) influence reproductive health outcomes.
Dr. Willis is PI of an NIH Director’s Early Independence Award that examines how oil and gas development may impact fertility and pregnancy. She is also a co-investigator on an accountability study of vehicle emission regulations and birth outcomes that is funded by the Health Effects Institute.