October 2020: Trish Koman on being awarded the APHA Distinguished Service Award! •

Congratulations to Trish Koman, PhD, MPP, on being awarded the APHA Distinguished Service Award! The award was given in recognition of her work with the Environment Section as co-chair of the Chemicals & Health Topic Committee (National Conversation on Public Health and Chemical Exposures) since 2016, her contribution to drafting APHA public comments on the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and on children’s environmental health topics, and as a result of this work, serving as an invited contributor to the University of California at San Francisco’s “Resetting the Science Agenda for Chemical Policy” working group. Trish served over 20 years as a senior environmental scientist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). There she served as principal author of landmark national air pollution standards for particulate matter, a standard which withstood a challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court. Since completion of her PhD, she has dedicated her career to building partnerships with community and practice organizations to continue to further environmental health research and its application to community challenges. Her deep commitment to creating opportunities for the next generation of scientists and environmental advocates is manifest in her teaching, which emphasizes the creation of opportunities for students to learn how to be effective in diverse, multi-disciplinary settings, and in the use of evidence-based pedagogy to inform environmental decision making.

Due in significant part to Trish’s leadership in developing public comments, in 2018 the Environment Section was presented with APHA’s award for advocacy. Trish continues to make substantial contributions towards environmental health policy and regulatory frameworks, and ongoing contributions to critical education for environmental literacy and advocacy make her an exceptional and deserving candidate for the Environment Section’s Distinguished Service Award!