BenchTalkLive: COVID and Wastewater, May 9th

Rachel Keith is an Associate Professor of Medicine with the Division of Environmental Health and the Director of Human Subject Services with the Envirome Institute at the University of Louisville. Her research program combines her diverse skill set in basic sciences, nursing, community participatory research and clinical studies. For most of her career she has practiced part time in a preventive cardiology clinic, focusing on researching how environmental exposures impact health outcomes, targeting prevention of cardiovascular disease and novel identifiers of early disease. Since 2020 she has expanded her research to COVID-19 and Long Covid. The environment can be made up of many things including lifestyle choices such as physical activity, tobacco use, and diet choices, workplace psychosocial metrics, as well as exposure to inhaled compounds such as air pollution or biotics like Sars-CoV02. Though genetics plays a role in susceptibility of individuals to disease, a larger portion likely comes from the environment. Her research uses tools for evaluating perceptions of residential and workplace exposures, physical and mental health and risk, cardiovascular health, metabolic health, exposure to hazardous chemicals, greenness exposure, e-cigarettes, and biomarkers of injury. She has participated and managed numerous clinical trials and NIH or industry sponsored investigator initiated human studies, as well including enrolling over 2000 local participants in environmental studies and 15000 in COVID studies. She is establishing how the environment influences both disease and the perception of risk has many policy and regulatory implications. Rachel received a B.A., B.S.N., M.S., M.S.N. and Ph.D. from the University of Louisville. She is a board certified Adult nurse practitioner with post-graduate training as a tobacco regulatory fellow with the American Heart Association and a certified tobacco treatment specialist.
 
Lauren Anderson holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Louisville and is a Research Management Professional. As a Program Manager for the Envirome Institute and Center for Healthy Air Water and Soil, Lauren specializes in leading collaborative teams through community-facing projects and clinical trials. Lauren has a particular interest in project communication and research translation with a focus on environmental and wellbeing research. She is a part of the Green Heart and Co-Immunity Projects at the Envirome Institute. Lauren has managed portfolios for the Institute for Healthy Air Water and Soil, a Louisville-based environmental nonprofit, the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness. Prior to joining Public Health, Lauren worked for Louisville Metro Community Services and received her Bachelor of Arts from Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky.