ABOUT US

The Maternal And Developmental Risks from Environmental and Social stressors (MADRES) Center for Environmental Health Disparities at USC was established in 2015 to investigate the cumulative effects of chemical pollutants and psychosocial, behavioral, and built environment risk factors, during and after pregnancy, on maternal and infant health outcomes. The MADRES Cohort is a prospective cohort of low-income, predominantly Hispanic women in Los Angeles. The MADRES Center facilitates research efforts, research translation and dissemination, capacity building, and mentoring in its efforts to identify opportunities for policy, clinical, and programmatic interventions to increase environmental and health equity for Los Angeles communities disproportionately impacted by obesity and environmental chemical pollutants.

The MADRES Center is a program of the Division of Environmental Health of the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. During its first cycle from 2015-2020, it was one of five Centers of Excellence on Environmental Health Disparities Research supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (NIEHS/NIMHD: P50ES026086, EPA: 83615801). During its second cycle from 2020-2025, the MADRES Center is supported by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (NIH: P50MD015705). The MADRES Center is also supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program (NIH: UH3OD023287).