M-LEEaD News and Member Updates
2026
October 2026: M-LEEaD Newsletter October 2026: EHSCC Annual Meeting Recap, Upcoming Events, Member News • M-LEEaD members recently joined colleagues from other Environmental Health Sciences Core Centers across the country for the 2026 EHSCC Annual Meeting in Rochester, New York. Held September 14–17, the meeting provided opportunities to share emerging environmental health research, exchange ideas across centers, and strengthen approaches to translating research into meaningful impact. Pan Omics and Data Science Core Leader Jackie Goodrich presented “PFAS and Epigenetics: Insights from Newborns and Firefighters” during the plenary session, “Health Effects of PFAS: What We Know and Key Knowledge Gaps.” Community Engagement Core Leader Amy Schulz facilitated two Community Engagement Core sessions, including a roundtable on... Read more
September 2026: M-LEEaD Newsletter September 2026: Upcoming Events, Member News • M-LEEaD's Traditional Pilot Project Program provides funding to foster innovative research aligned with the center's mission and the goals of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Through this program, M-LEEaD supports emerging research that advances our understanding of how environmental exposures affect human health while generating the preliminary evidence and partnerships needed for future research. The six newly selected 2026 Pilot Projects demonstrate the breadth of environmental health research taking place across M-LEEaD, from community-based partnerships and population health research to advanced laboratory models and data-driven analyses. This year's projects span community-engaged exposure assessment study design in rural communtiies,... Read more
August 2026: M-LEEaD Newsletter August 2026: Environmental research webinars, member news on wildfire smoke and glyphosate studies, and more! • M-LEEaD's Environmental Research Webinar Series, hosted by the Integrated Health Sciences Core, brings together leading researchers to discuss emerging topics in environmental health and showcase innovative research from across the field. Whether you missed a session or want to revisit a presentation, recordings from the past year are available to watch on YouTube. Explore the recent webinars below: Effects of Gestational Phthalate Exposure on Age-Specific DNA Methylation Speaker: Ariana Haidari, MS, RD Affiliation: University of Michigan Beyond Steroid Hormones: Endocrine Disruption of Pancreatic Function and Development Speaker: Karilyn E. Sant, MPH, PhD Affiliation: Michigan State University From Exposure Assessment to Community Intervention: Advancing Metabolic Health in Informal E-Waste... Read more
July 2026: M-LEEaD Newsletter July 2026: NIH Highlighted Topics, 2026-27 Center Scientists, Summer Stats Consulting, and more! • The M-LEEaD Career Development Program, led by Gil Omenn and Justin Colacino, is pleased to announce M-LEEaD’s selected 2026-2027 Center Scientists- Kimberley Sala-Hamrick, Talia Sternbach, and Tian Xia! This program provides early-career investigators with mentorship, interdisciplinary collaboration, and career development opportunities that support innovative environmental health research. Each year, selected scientists pursue projects that align with the M-LEEaD mission to better understand how environmental exposures impact health across the lifespan while developing the skills and partnerships needed to become future leaders in the field. Kimberley Sala-Hamrick, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at... Read more
June 2026: M-LEEaD Newsletter June 2026: Public Health Honors, M-LEEaD Opportunities, Member News • The University of Michigan School of Public Health recently celebrated its fifth annual Public Health Honors event, recognizing students, faculty, staff, and organizations whose work continues to advance leadership, research, teaching, and community impact across public health. M-LEEaD Integrated Health Sciences Core Co-Lead Sung Kyun Park received the Excellence in Teaching Award for his dedication to student mentorship and innovative public health education. Over the past 15 years, Park has developed widely used graduate courses and helped prepare students to tackle complex public health challenges through advanced analytical and epidemiologic methods. M-LEEaD Community Engagement Core Leader Amy Schulz was honored with the... Read more
May 2026: M-LEEaD Newsletter May 2026: Catch up on Member News • The Society of Toxicology 2026 Annual Meeting and ToxExpo was held in March 2026 in San Diego, bringing together researchers, trainees, and leaders in toxicology from around the world to share emerging science and advance the field. M-LEEaD was well represented throughout the conference, with members actively contributing through presentations, symposia, and engagement across multiple specialty sections. M-LEEaD Associate Director Vasantha Padmanabhan received the 2026 Scientific Achievement Award from the Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology Specialty Section, recognizing her significant contributions to the field. Kimmie Sala-Hamrick, a Research Fellow in Environmental Health Sciences, was awarded the Trainee Award from the Cardiovascular Toxicology... Read more
April 2026: M-LEEaD Newsletter April 2026 • Image caption: a selection of photos from Environmental Statistics Day 2026, including Dr. Abhi Datta presenting, the event poster session, and the IHSC organizers. On February 20, 2026, the Integrated Health Science Core hosted its Environmental Statistics Day symposium, bringing together researchers, students, and faculty to explore emerging work at the intersection of statistics and environmental health. The event was organized by IHSC Co-Leader Lu Wang, Professor of Biostatistics at the School of Public Health. The symposium featured a keynote presentation by Abhi Datta, PhD, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, titled “Statistics and Machine Learning for Studying Air... Read more
March 2026: M-LEEaD Newsletter March 2026 • M-LEEaD’s Residents & Researchers (R&R) Seminar series is a collaboration between the Community Engagement and Integrated Health Sciences Cores and facilitates partnerships and understanding of community concerns among M-LEEaD researchers - and of scientific research among people experiencing environmental exposures in their communities. The goal is to help connect research on environmental risk factors to the experience of environmental hazards in the places where people live, work, and play - and even more importantly, to provide examples of the power of partnerships between researchers and community residents in addressing critical environmental health issues. The focus is on demonstrating the potential... Read more
February 2026: M-LEEaD Newsletter February 2026: Spotlight on PODS Core Workshop, Member News Updates, Upcoming Events, and Opportunities of Interest • In November, M-LEEaD hosted an engaging workshop, Intro to AI: Tools and Best Practices to Help You as an EHS Researcher, organized by the Pan Omics and Data Science (PODS) Core. Held on November 21, the event drew an enthusiastic audience eager to learn how artificial intelligence can support research and academic work. The workshop was developed in response to growing member interest in using AI tools responsibly and effectively. University of Michigan experts from bioinformatics, computer science and engineering, medicine, and environmental health shared practical insights and perspectives. Dr. A.J. Wing led an interactive session on commonly used AI tools,... Read more
January 2026: M-LEEaD Newsletter December 2025: Highlighting Partner Organization NSF, Catch Up on Member News, and Upcoming Events • NSF was founded in 1944 in the basement of the University of Michigan School of Public Health, where three faculty scientists set out to create science-based standards to protect food and water safety. More than 80 years later, that vision has grown into a global enterprise. Today, NSF is a trusted authority for health standards, testing, certification, consulting, and training, with 5,000 experts serving 40,000 clients in 110 countries across the food, water, and wellness sectors. Despite its global reach, NSF’s connection to Michigan Public Health remains strong. The organization continues to play an integral role in advancing research, education, and... Read more
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