Children's Health Meets Environmental Health

Catherine Karr has found a niche in what she calls the “very small cadre” of scientists with special expertise in child health and environmental health.

A combination of degrees in toxicology and medicine, and graduate study in epidemiology allows her to address children’s environmental health from the individual patient level (as a physician) and the public health level (as a researcher).

Her background allows her to translate the often-uncertain findings of science into meaningful information for families and health-care providers who need to make crucial decisions involving children. She finds her hybrid specialty “somewhat novel and rich with new discovery.”

As a pediatric fellow, she has undertaken a large epidemiologic study of the impact of ambient air pollution on infant bronchiolitis. She also supervises and teaches pediatric residents at the University of Washington (UW) Physicians Pediatric Clinic–Roosevelt.

As a consultant in the Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU) at Harborview, she responds to queries from families and health-care providers about potential health problems associated with environmental exposures in children.

After receiving her toxicology degree at the UW, she moved to Washington, DC to work for a public interest group on pesticide issues. She returned to Washington state as one of the first toxicologists hired at the newly developed Safety and Health Assessment and Research Program (SHARP) at the state Department of Labor and Industries in 1990.

She returned to graduate school in the Epidemiology Department of the School of Public Health and Community Medicine to refine her research skills. Based on an interest in individual—as well as population—health, she entered UW Medical School and completed a pediatric residency at Seattle Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center.

She sought a career where she could integrate her interests in pediatrics, environmental health, and epidemiologic research. She hopes to provide leadership as a pediatrician with an environmental health specialty. In July, she will join the faculty in Pediatrics at the UW and continue building a Northwest resource in pediatric environmental medicine.

She found that her experience in our department, where she studied insecticide exposure in farmworkers under Lucio Costa’s guidance, provided a “valuable foundation for each further step of training.” Colleagues in our department have served as key mentors through-out her career. Associate Professor Joel Kaufman currently chairs her dissertation committee.

Our department exposed her to the interdisciplinary nature of environmental exposure impacts on health, which she has carried forward with her doctoral studies.

She would recommend that today’s students take advantage of the excellent opportunities for mentorship in our department and develop relationships with as many faculty and scientific staff as possible.

Because of high public interest, she says, there is a demand for those with expertise in children’s environmental health.