Members & Staff

UAlbany Faculty

Affiliated Faculty
 

Kathleen Arcaro

Environmental Sciences Program, University of Massachusetts

Dr. Arcaro’s research program is focused on understanding how environmental exposures and lifestyle choices can affect the development of breast cancer. Additionally, for the last decade Dr. Arcaro has been studying breast milk as a means of understanding how environmental exposures and lifestyle choices can affect the development of breast cancer. She has published numerous scientific articles, and reviews of her research have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and Business Week among others. Dr. Arcaro’s research on the epigenetics of cells in breast milk is funded by the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program, the Avon Foundation for Women, and the National Institutes of Health. Learn more about Dr. Arcaro's breast milk research.
 

Sheila Bushkin-Bedient

New York Alliance Against Chronic Diseases; Medical Society of the State of New York

After many years in general surgery and plastic and reconstructive surgery, in addition to emergency medicine, Dr. Buskin-Bedient became involved in public health and preventive medicine. As a member of the Medical Society of the State of New York (MSSNY) since 1998, she has served on many committees concerned with public health education and advocacy issues. Her specific areas of interest involve chronic diseases, aging, environmental health and continuing medical education (CME).
 

Judith Enck

Beyond Plastics Program, Bennington College

Judith Enck served as Region 2 administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency from 2009 to 2017. Prior to that she served as Deputy Secretary for the Environment for the Governor of New York State, and an Environmental Advisor to the New York State Attorney General. A graduate of St. Rose, she has served as Executive Director of Environmental Advocates and a staff person for the New York Public Interest Research Group.
 

Jeffrey L Goldhagen

University of Florida College of Medicine

Dr. Goldhagen is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Florida College of Medicine who has long worked through the International Society for Social Pediatrics and Child Health to promote knowledge and education on issues related to children’s health, which is a major goal of the World Health Organization.  Dr. Goldhagen will promote these activities through our WHO Collaborating Centre, especially in Latin America but also in other parts of the world.
 

Laura Jones

Dr. Jones is an experienced data analyst, modeler and biostatistician with a demonstrated history of working as a researcher in higher education. Dr. Jones is skilled in numerical simulation, data analysis for small and large datasets, survey analysis, biostatistical analysis, mathematical modeling of biological and ecological systems, supervised and unsupervised methods in machine learning, and programming in Python, R, MatLab and SQL. Dr. Jones graduated from CalTech with additional courses from Cornell University (Mathematics, Statistics, Computational Ecology) and UAlbany (MS in Statistics, Biostatistics and Mathematics-Data Science).
 

Lawrence Lessner 

Dr. Lessner's specialties are in biostatistics and epidemiology.
 

Pamela Miller

Alaska Community Action on Toxics

Pamela Miller serves as Executive Director of Alaska Community Action on Toxics, an environmental health research and advocacy organization. With a master’s degree in environmental science and a bachelor’s degree in biology, she has thirty years of experience in research, policy, advocacy, and training programs focused on environmental health, justice, and marine ecology. Since 2005, Miller has served as Principal Investigator for community-based research projects supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) with Indigenous communities. Miller is known for her work toward achieving state, national, and international chemicals policy reform to protect environmental and human health in the Arctic. She was selected as a Fellow for the Reach the Decision Makers program from the University of California San Francisco, Reproductive Health and Environment Program (2011) and as a Mentor (2013-2016). In 2012, she received the Meritorious Community Service Award from the Board of Regents of the University of Alaska. Alaska Conservation Foundation awarded Miller the Olaus Murie Award in recognition of her “long-term outstanding professional contributions to the conservation movement in Alaska.” In 2016, she was elected to serve as the co-chair of the International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN), a global network of more than 500 environmental health and justice organizations working for a toxics-free future. She also serves on the board of directors for the Groundswell Fund (2013-present).
 

Gayle Morse

Psychology, The Sage Colleges' School of Health Sciences

For over a decade, Dr. Morse has conducted research examining the effects of Polychlorinated Biphenyls and other toxic chemicals on Mental Health.
 

William Pan

Environmental Health, Duke University

Bill Pan is the Elizabeth Brooks Reid and Whitlaw Reid Associate Professor Global Environmental Health at Duke University, and with Prof. Beth Feingold has extensive research in South America. He received his MPH from Emory and his DrPH from the University of North Carolina.
 

Norman Strominger

Center for Neuropharmacology and Neuroscience, Albany Medical College

Dr. Strominger is a coauthor of Noback’s Human Nervous System, Seventh Edition, 2012. His main interests include neuroanatomical organization of the central nervous system, mechanisms of nausea and vomiting, auditory system and control of movement. Dr. Strominger has an adjunct appointment in UAlbany's School of Public Health in the Department of Biomedical Sciences.
 

Bayram Yilmaz

Medical Physiology, Yeditepe University

Bayram Yilmaz is a Professor of Medical Physiology at Yeditepe University in Istanbul, Türkiye. He has a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Firat University (Türkiye) and PhD in Medical Physiology from University of Glasgow (Scotland). He worked as a Research Assistant Professor at the State University of New York at Albany, and Visiting Scientist at the King’s College London and at the University of Oxford. His research interest include neuro-endocrine regulation of energy homeostasis and reproductive hormones in experimental models. He also works on presence of endocrine disrupting chemicals in human (breast milk) and environmental samples using in vitro and in vivo test models. Prof. Dr. Bayram Yilmaz served as Secretary General at Federation of European Physiological Societies (FEPS) between 2014 and 2022. He is the president of Turkish Neuroscience Society and Vice President of Turkish Society of Physiological Sciences. He founded and chaired the Turkish Neuroendocrinology Society between 2008 and 2018. Professor Yılmaz served as founding Secretary General (2016 to 2019) and acting President (2018 to 2019) at the Health Institutes of Türkiye (TÜSEB).