Our Team

Dr. Miller is an Associate Clinical Professor at the UCSF, Director Emeritus of the Western States Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU), and Former Director of the California EPA Children’s Environmental Health Center. A pediatrician, he also works with the Center for Integrative Research on Childhood Leukemia and the Environment (CIRCLE) at UC Berkeley translating the evolving knowledge of risk factors for childhood cancer to clinicians, mid-level providers, and parents. Since 2022, Dr. Miller has directed the Childhood Cancer and the Environment Program for the National PEHSU network.

Dr. Catherine Metayer received her medical degree from the University of Bordeaux II in France, and her Ph.D. in Epidemiology from Tulane University, School of Public Health in New Orleans.  She is a leading childhood cancer researcher at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. Previously, Dr. Metayer was a scientist at the US National Cancer Institute, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics. Her work primarily focuses on environmental, dietary, and genetic risk factors of childhood leukemia and testicular cancer, which disproportionately affect the Latinx communities in California. She is the Director of the Center for Integrative Research on Childhood Leukemia and the Environment (CIRCLE), and the immediate past Chair of the Childhood and Cancer Leukemia International Consortium (CLIC). She collaborates with researchers at the intersection of various omics including genetics, epigenetics, metabolomics, and adductomics. 

Dr. Wiemels is a professor in the Center for Genetic Epidemiology at USC studying the molecular epidemiology of childhood cancers, particularly childhood leukemia and brain cancer. His work concentrates on etiology and prevention, incorporating concepts of genetic susceptibility and interaction with environmental exposures and infections. His research group is focused on the interaction of inherited genetics and environmental factors to cause specific mutational and epigenetic changes, and the specific timing of these events during the development of the child. Dr. Wiemels is currently an Associate Director of the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center (NCCC) at USC.

Vickie Leonard, RN, NP (retired), PhD has been working as a Child Care Health Consultant for the past seven years, first as a nurse at the California Childcare Health Program, UCSF School of Nursing, then at the UCSF Institute for Health & Aging. Dr. Leonard was the principle author of the California Department of Education, Child Development Division’s Preschool Learning Foundations in Health and Physical Development (Volume 2, released in 2011). While at CCHP, she developed an interest in environmental health in early care and education. She was the principle author of Integrated Pest Management: A Toolkit for Early Care and Education Programs, developed through a grant from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation. She worked with Dr. Asa Bradman on a Department of Pesticide Regulation-funded survey of pesticide use in California Child Care Centers, and was the PI on a second Toolkit: Green Cleaning, Sanitizing, and Disinfecting: A Toolkit for Early Care and Education. She worked on a project to develop a continuing education module on The Healthy Schools Act for for pest management professionals working in child care programs and schools, the hazards of pesticides for children and child care and school staff, and the use of IPM in childcare centers and schools. She has presented to audiences of child care providers, directors, EPA staff and administrators on health hazards associated with environmental exposures as well as IPM and green cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting. Vickie heads up the PEHSU’s Environmental Health in Early Care and Education Project.

Abby Mutic, PhD, CNM, is an Assistant Professor from Emory University School of Nursing, a Certified Nurse Midwife, and the Director of the Southeast Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit(SE PEHSU). Her expertise is in environmental exposures and respiratory health among women and children. She oversees multiple community outreach projects in the Southeast and consults with exposed communities and healthcare providers experiencing large and small environmental hazards. Dr. Mutic is a mindful researcher, employing continuous community guidance for research development, interpretation, and educational report-back.

Dr. Alan Woolf is Co-Director of the Pediatric Environmental Health Center at Boston Children’s Hospital and its Pediatric Environmental Health Fellowship Training Program and Co-Director of the Region 1 New England Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit. He is a Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Woolf is a past-president of both the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology (AACT) and the American Association of Poison Control Centers. In 2018, Dr. Woolf received the Career Achievement Award from the AACT. In 2019, he was named the Louis Roche Lecturer (its highest career award) by the European Association of Poisons Centers and Clinical Toxicologists. Dr. Woolf has published extensively on childhood poisonings, poisoning prevention and toxic reactions to heavy metals. He is the Medical Editor of two books: The Children’s Hospital Guide to Your Child’s Health and Development and most recently: The History of Modern Clinical Toxicology (Elsevier 2022). 

https://www.childrenshospital.org/directory/alan-woolf

Emily Moody, MD, MHS, is a pediatrics physician with University of Minnesota Health.  Previously, she served as a pediatric environmental health research fellow in the department of environmental medicine and public health at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City.  Her research has focused on how exposure to toxic metals affects growth patterns in children across the globe.  

Hannah Thompson, MD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Medicine & Climate Science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and a NYSCHECK Scholar. She works with the Region 2 Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU) consultation service. She is also board certified in Occupational and Environmental Medicine. She is interested in research and has a focus on pediatric and adult cancer and the environment, and she has been working on the PEHSU’s Childhood Cancer and the Environment Initiative.

Dr. Stormy Monks, PhD, MPH, is an Associate Professor and serves as the Director of the Division of Research with Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso (TTUHSC EP) Department of Emergency Medicine. In addition, Dr. Monks serves as the Regional Director of the Southwest Center for Pediatric Environmental Health, the Region 6 Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (SWCPEH). She is the Director of Research for the Texas Tech Training and Educational Center for Healthcare Simulation (TECHS) and serves as the TTUHSC EP Institutional Review Board Chair.

As the Regional Director of the SWCPEH, Dr. Monks spends much of her time educating both health professionals and community members across Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and New Mexico on environmental health topics that impact children such as air quality, pesticide use, extreme heat, healthy housing, drugs of abuse, asthma, and prenatal exposures. She has a passion for environmental justice communities across Region 6, specifically communities along the US/Mexico border where she was both raised and where she currently raises her own family.

Dr. Monks has presented her research at various local, regional, national, and international conferences as well as authored several publications focusing on healthcare simulation, emergency medicine, environmental health, alcohol and drug use, and risky lifestyle behaviors. Moreover, she has been engaged in mentoring master-level public health students, medical students, emergency medicine residents, and early career faculty members. When not working, she enjoys spending time with her husband, children, and four grandchildren.

 Erica Guerrero, MS, MPAS, PA-C, is a physician assistant for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center El Paso. She graduated from Georgetown University with a Master of Science in Biohazardous Threat Agents and Emerging Infectious Diseases, and she received a Master of Physician Assistant Studies from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. Ms. Guerrero started working with the Southwest Center for Pediatric Environmental Health (SWCPEH), the Region 6 Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU), in 2018 as a core collaborator. The opportunity to work with the SWCPEH has led to a deeper interest in topics related to pediatric environmental health. She currently serves as the SWCPEH’s emergency preparedness and disaster recovery core collaborator. Ms. Guerrero is also the regional champion for the PEHSU’s environmentally related childhood cancer educational efforts. Moreover, she has a passion for environmental health issues that impact those living and working along the U.S.-Mexico Border.

Marissa Hauptman, MD, MPH, FAAP is a mother, practicing board-certified general pediatrician, environmental medicine physician-scientist, and co-director for the Boston Children’s Pediatric Environmental Health Center and the Region 1 New England Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit. Each week, in addition to her general pediatrics practice, she provides multidisciplinary clinical care for children with lead poisoning, mold exposure, asthma and other environmentally-mediated disease processes. Her career is dedicated to mitigating environmental health challenges for pediatric and reproductive-aged populations through the intersection of public health and medicine. Her work particularly focuses on the importance of systematically integrating and leveraging geospatial and biological markers of environmental exposures and screening tools into pediatric medicine. She has an NIH/NIEHS K23 Career Development Award and recently became an inaugural Chief Medical Advisor to the Bureau of Climate and Environmental Health at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

Dr. Hauptman has leveraged her expertise as a physician-scientist in pediatric environmental medicine to make important clinical advances and innovations in the field of childhood lead poisoning and other environmental and climate justice issues. She has received numerous local, regional and national awards for her research and dedication to addressing environmental and climate injustices for pediatric populations. These accolades include the Boston Combined Residency Program Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Faculty Honor Roll (2022-23), the Rhode Island Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program Healthy Housing Award (2007), the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Allergy and Immunology Outstanding Abstract Award (2016), the Academic Pediatric Association Fellow Research Award (2015) and the Academic Pediatric Association Michael Shannon Research Award (2017).

MaryKate is Co-Director of the NW PEHSU. She completed her Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree, with a focus in Pediatric Primary Care, at the University of Washington, and her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) at Boston College. As a nurse she has worked in a various pediatric healthcare settings, ranging from primary to intensive care, and has been a member of the NW PEHSU health consultant team since 2020. Her work with NW PEHSU includes researching and responding to pediatric environmental health inquiries and finding ways to translate evidence into understandable, actionable material for parents, community members, and healthcare professionals. She also directs various NW PEHSU outreach and education projects. She is passionate about pediatric environmental health, and aims to integrate PEH topics into the curricula of healthcare professional programs in order to increase awareness and improve child health outcomes.

Dr. Nikki Wood is a board-certified pediatric hematologist/oncologist and clinical informaticist at Children’s Mercy Kansas City and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. She co-directs the Cancer Predisposition Clinic at Children’s Mercy, where she focuses on the care of children and families with inherited cancer risk, including surveillance and prevention strategies. She is the Mid-America PEHSU champion for the “Childhood Cancer and the Environment Program.”  Dr. Wood’s goal with this work is to empower clinicians to partner with families in understanding and addressing potential environmental risks, and to approach the difficult but common question, “why did this happen?” with empathy, clarity, and evidence-based guidance.

James Earl Schier Nolan, MPH, is the Associate Director of the WSPEHSU. Mr. Nolan graduated from Seattle University, double majoring in Sociology and Gender Studies, and from UC Berkeley with a Masters of Public Health, specializing in social determinants of health disparities associated with racism, classism, sexism and geography. He focuses on engaging community members in addressing social determinants of health and structural violence overlap to influence environmental injustices, with an emphasis on diversifying STEM fields and harnessing local assets through community based participatory research (CBPR). This approach helps to build awareness, expand capacity and engages community members in co-designing more relevant and effective health interventions. He has managed several participatory action-driven research projects including the COSECHA Study on Latine teens’ exposures to pesticides during puberty, the LUCIR Study on Latines’ exposures to carcinogens in cleaning products during their normal cleaning routines, the Richmond Youth Air Quality Initiative on intra-neighborhood air pollution disparities, helped coordinate the AIM Study on indoor air pollution from gas stoves, and leads community outreach projects including organizational partnerships, trainings, presentations, workshops, website development and multimedia including a Spanish Radio Novella series, a bilingual animated PSA mini-series, a mural and a zine. At the WSPEHSU, he has led major patient education material development and integration, formal courses for undergraduates and medical students, and higher level health professional trainings.

Dr. Shakeel is an Assistant Professor and board-certified pediatric hematologist/oncologist in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology-Oncology at Baylor College of Medicine and provides clinical care at Texas Children’s Hospital. Throughout his training, families often asked him what might have caused their child’s cancer and how they could reduce the risk of future health problems. As a result, he became interested in environmental exposures on the development and outcomes of pediatric cancers. Currently, Dr. Shakeel leads physician seeing patients in the Long-Term Survivor clinic at Texas Children’s Hematology and Cancer Center and serves on the Scientific Advisory Council for the Childhood Cancer Prevention Consortium. He is also part of the Childhood Cancer and the Environment Program, a national program of the Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units. His clinical expertise and research focus on integrating environmental health into pediatric cancer care and improving long-term outcomes.

Whitney Sterten-Hall is the Communications Lead for the PEHSU National Program Office. She has worked at Public Health Institute (PHI) on CDC funded programs since 2019. She helps organizations showcase their successes through various media that includes writing, podcast, graphics and video creation. Since 2014, Whitney has helped launch and grow global communications efforts in both non-profit and for-profit industries in education, travel and public health. She is passionate about celebrating perspectives across cultures, and empowering audiences by making information more accessible and easier to understand. Previously, Whitney spent four years supporting the PHI/CDC Global Health Fellowship Program and one year supporting the Region 9 Emergency Preparedness Workplan. As a parent herself, she is grateful to amplify the work of the PEHSU. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from New York University, an MSW from Columbia University, and a Certificate in Strategic Communications & Public Relations from Portland State University.

Hannah (Grose) Wilkerson supports CCEP as a program partner with their newsletter production, and has been with Children’s Environmental Health Network (CEHN) since March 2020. As External Relations and Creative Manager, she cultivates CEHN’s presence in the community through digital marketing and outreach, individual fundraiser stewardship, and maintaining active engagement in collaborative efforts like the Cancer Free Economy Network, Clean Water for All Coalition, and the National Radon Action Plan Leadership Council. She also supports CEHN’s diverse program activities and facilitates CEHN events. Ms. Wilkerson received her B.S. in Environmental Studies with a minor in Biology from Gettysburg College in 2013. Since then she has specialized in building community within grassroots change-making organizations and businesses. With ten years of experience in community outreach and cultivation, Ms. Wilkerson is passionate about the health of our environment and communities, with deep roots in food and environmental justice. Prior to CEHN, she facilitated meaningful connections to collaboratively engage in a vision of sustainability, equity, and inclusion that protects the Chesapeake Bay and its people as Outreach Coordinator for the Chesapeake Foodshed Network, and as a marketing consultant for several Maryland farms and farming collectives.

Perry Sheffield MD, MPH is the Co-Director of the Region 2 PEHSU at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) and Professor in the Department of Environmental Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Sheffield is a pediatrician, environmental health researcher, and Co-Director of the NYSCHECK Coordinating Center. She completed her fellowship in Pediatric Environmental Health at Mount Sinai.

Dr. Teresa Conte is an associate professor of nursing at the University of Scranton in Scranton, PA. She has been a pediatric nurse with a focus in oncology for 28 years and is a certified pediatric nurse practitioner. Dr. Conte is a fellow of the Association of Pediatric Hematology Oncology Nurses.