Education & Affiliations
Biography
Derek Werthmann is an Environmental Epidemiologist with expertise in epidemiology, environmental exposure, and maternal child health. His current research focuses on unraveling the complex interplay between environmental exposures and health outcomes, particularly in populations that have historically had disparate environmental exposures and health outcomes. He is currently assessing the impact of pesticide exposure on the immune response of COVID-19. His work encompasses a wide range of studies from investigating pesticide exposure and respiratory health in a cohort of women and children living in an agricultural region in Costa Rica to mapping traffic-related air pollution in Morocco to evaluating residential pesticide exposure and asthma morbidity in New Orleans. He is committed to addressing health disparities and promoting public health interventions grounded in rigorous scientific evidence. Prior to joining the faculty at Tulane, he was a post-doctoral fellow at North Carolina State University. He received his PhD and MPH in epidemiology from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Dr. Werthmann also holds a BA in French and BS in Nutrition Science from the University of California Davis.
Research Areas
My research interests are concerned with the discovery of the environmental exposures that contribute to or protect against illnesses, injuries, disabilities, and deaths; and identification of translatable public health actions to manage the associated risks. As a post-doctoral scholar at North Carolina State University in the Biological Sciences Department in the College of Sciences I worked on several research projects aimed at pesticide exposure and maternal child health. My interests integrate survey research methods with substantive areas of underserved populations and maternal child health. The theme of my research interest is to better understand the individual, social and environmental factors to health and well-being among populations who have traditionally experienced disparities in health and access to health care and the discovery of interventions to reduce these disparities.
Honors & Awards
- 2018: Fulbright Scholar
- 2023: Underrepresented Minority Roadmap Scholar
Publications
View Dr. Werthmann's publications on his NCBI profile page.
