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Stephanie Cleland

Assistant Professor Legacy for Airway Health Chair in Promotion of Lung Health

Stephanie Cleland

Assistant Professor, Legacy for Airway Health Chair in Promotion of Lung Health

Areas of interest

Environmental health, climate change, environmental epidemiology, exposure assessment, health impact assessment, climate change-related environmental exposures (wildfire smoke, extreme heat), health equity, GIS

Biography

Dr. Stephanie Cleland joined the Faculty of Health Sciences in September 2023 as an assistant professor and the Legacy for Airway Health Chair in Promotion of Lung Health. She is also a research scientist at the Legacy for Airway Health at the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute. Dr. Cleland’s research focuses on evaluating the human health impacts of exposure to climate change-influenced environmental hazards using environmental epidemiology, exposure assessments, and health impact assessments. She holds a PhD and MSPH in Environmental Sciences and Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a BS in Computer Science and Community Health from Tufts University. She conducted her dissertation research as an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) research fellow at the United States Environmental Protection Agency in the Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment.

Research Interests

Broadly, Dr. Cleland’s research investigates how climate change-related environmental exposures, such as wildfire smoke and extreme heat, adversely impact human health. Her work leverages novel statistical approaches and innovative datasets to understand what levels, durations, and types of exposure are most harmful to the health and well-being of communities and identify the most at-risk and impacted populations. In her research, she utilizes spatiotemporal exposure assessments to estimate population-level exposure and runs complex epidemiological analyses and health impact assessments to link these exposure estimates with large health outcome datasets. Her research further investigates the best approaches for evaluating these impacts and aims to identify approaches for reducing the adverse health effects of and increasing community resilience to climate change. Dr. Cleland also has a strong interest in science and public health communication, environmental health justice, and increasing the accessibility of scientific research.

 

Publications

View Dr. Cleland’s publication record here.

 

Courses

Future courses may be subject to change.