Environmental Impact on Health (Planetary Health)
Research core
Center for Global Health
The Center for Global health leads efforts to confront the health impacts of environmental change.
As climate change accelerates, we advance research and solutions that protect both planetary and human health.
Core leadership
Perry Hystad, PhD
Dr. Hystad leads the Spatial Health Lab at OSU, which examines the connections between place and human health and well-being. Dr. Hystad’s research focuses broadly on environmental exposure assessment and epidemiology, with applications to air pollution, healthy built environments, and climate resilience. Dr. Hystad is an avid collaborator and believes that the most pressing environmental health problems must be addressed with interdisciplinary team science.
Diana Rohlman, PhD
Dr. Rohlman’s research examines the role of environmental health literacy in helping communities better frame and respond to environmental health hazards.
In a project with the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, environmental health literacy is evaluated as a method to interweave traditional ecological knowledge and Western science concepts. In another project, Dr. Rohlman works with colleagues to design frameworks for returning data to participating communities.
Dr. Rohlman works closely with the Superfund Research Program to bring SRP researchers and impacted communities together on collaborative projects.
Biography.
In 2020, she became the director of the Community Engagement Core of the Pacific Northwest Center for Translational Environmental Health Research and the co-lead of the Research Translation Core of the Superfund Research Program.
Sarah Rothenberg, DEnv
Dr. Rothenberg uses a multidisciplinary framework, including environmental monitoring, risk assessment, and epidemiologic studies, to fully understand the dynamics of methylmercury exposure. She also investigates other trace metals, which co-occur with mercury in the environment.
Core news and stories
Public Health PhD student Madalyn Nones researches climate disaster resilience, focusing on drought impacts. Learn how she's helping communities adapt worldwide.
Doctoral student Memuna Aslam presented research on climate-driven health disparities and women’s political empowerment at the 2025 APHA Annual Meeting.
The study is the largest of its kind in the U.S. — and the world — to look at how air pollution may be connected to breast cancer. Using data from five large research studies, the team found that certain pollutants, such as nitrogen dioxide, were linked to a small increase in breast cancer overall.
