Meet the Team

The MADRES Center for Environmental Health Disparities convenes an experienced multi-disciplinary team of clinical, environmental, social, and public health scientists and community engagement professionals from the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at Keck School of Medicine of USC, LAC + USC Medical Center‘s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, USC’s Department of Psychology, California State University, Northridge, and Sonoma Technology.

Directors

Theresa Bastain, PhD, MPH
bastain@usc.edu
Associate Professor of Clinical Population and Public Health Sciences
P50 Center Director

Carrie Breton, ScD
breton@usc.edu
Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences

Lead Investigators

Genevieve Dunton, PhD, MPH
dunton@usc.edu
Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences &
Psychology
Division Chief for the Division of Health Behavior Research (HBR)

Shohreh Farzan, PhD
sffarzan@usc.edu
Associate Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences

Rima Habre, ScD, MSc
habre@usc.edu
Associate Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences

Claudia Toledo-Corral, MPH, PhD
claudia.toledo-corral@csun.edu
Adjunct Research Assistant Professor

Co-Investigators

Max Aung, PhD, MPH
maxaung@usc.edu
Assistant Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences, Associate Director of Community Engagement and Science Communication at the Center for Translational Exposomics Research (CTER)

Zhanghua Chen, PhD
zhanghuc@usc.edu
Assistant Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences

Sandrah Eckel, PhD
eckel@usc.edu
Associate Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences

Frank Gilliland, MD, MPH, PhD
gillilan@usc.edu
Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences

Brendan Grubbs, MD
grubbs@usc.edu
Assistant Professor of Clinical Obstetrics & Gynecology
Co-Director of Fetal Maternal Center

Megan Herting, PhD
herting@usc.edu
Associate Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences

Frederick Lurmann, MS
fred@sonomatech.com
Chairman / Manager of Exposure Assessment Studies

Carmen Marsit, PhD
carmen.j.marsit@emory.edu
Professor

Tyler Mason, PhD
tylermas@usc.edu
Associate Professor of Clinical Population and Public Health Sciences

Joshua Millstein, PhD
joshua.millstein@usc.edu
Associate Professor of Research Population and Public Health Sciences

Staff

The MADRES Center team includes skilled bilingual research professionals experienced in study coordination, data collection, phlebotomy, imaging, data management, data analytics, biostatistics, and the processing and archiving of biospecimens. The Center is committed to promoting opportunities for training, mentorship and career development in environmental health research, particularly among populations typically underrepresented in the field of environmental health sciences.

Several of our team members are alumni of our MADRES Eagles-RISE (Research Internship and Service in Environmental health disparities) internship program for first generation college students, jointly sponsored with California State University, Los Angeles. This program was featured by the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences in their Partnership for Environmental Public Health Newsletter.