The Future Researchers in Environmental Health Sciences (FRESH) program promotes the research and career development of talented early career scientists within NIEHS P30 Centers and fosters fresh collaborations between researchers. On April 2, 2026, UK-CARES willl be hosting Dr. Sara Lupolt from Johns Hopkins University.
Sara Lupolt, PhD, MPH
Assistant Scientist
Bloomberg School of Public Health
Johns Hopkins University
Sara Lupolt is an assistant scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Department of Environmental Health & Engineering. She is the Director of Science and Translation at the Center for a Livable Future and the Associate Director of Education and Training at the Risk Sciences and Public Policy Institute.
She earned her PhD in Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, her MPH in Environmental Health Science and Policy at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, and her BA in Government and Environmental Studies at Franklin and Marshall College.
Her research aims to improve our ability to tackle wicked public health problems at the intersection of our environment and food system to protect our most vulnerable subpopulations. She investigates public health risks associated with metals exposures in urban agriculture, soil and dust exposures among children and agricultural workers, and air pollutant exposures incurred by communities living on the fenceline of petrochemical and other industrial facilities. As an exposure scientist, a key goal of her research is to develop and advance innovative methods for estimating and measuring human exposures to environmental, chemical, and non-chemical stressors. She has experience with qualitative methods, time-activity patterns, videographic behavior coding, and non-target analysis for identifying novel tracers. In addition to her research, she prioritizes the translation and dissemination of all study findings to the impacted communities, key stakeholders, and decision and policymakers. Dr. Lupolt has a strong commitment to embracing community-based participatory research methods whenever possible in the pursuit of environmental health and education.
JOIN US for the EHS Seminar!
“Applying a cumulative impacts and risk lens to assessing health burdens among fence-line communities in southeastern PA”
Current risk assessment and regulatory decision-making approaches generally address risks from one chemical or facility at a time. This practice does not align with real-world experiences and multi-faceted exposures incurred by communities living at the fencelines of heavy industry. I will introduce an improved approach for characterizing cumulative non-cancer risks that leverages measurements from a cutting-edge mobile monitoring campaign of hazardous air pollutants emitted from a wide array of chemical and petrochemical facilities along the industrial corridor in southeastern PA. I will also tell the story of a complementary community-based participatory research collaboration between Johns Hopkins University, Marcus Hook Area Neighbors for Public Health, and the Clean Air Council to collect data to describe the cumulative impacts of both the chemical (e.g., exposure to air pollutants) and nonchemical (e.g., economic hardship) stressors residents face. This collaboration administered a community environmental health survey and conducted focus groups to document residents' lived experiences and found that odor, air pollution and noise were common concerns that directly impacted well-being and quality of life. Both physical and mental health symptoms were more common than clinician diagnoses of related conditions (e.g., asthma, depression). Findings were presented to community members and leveraged as testimony to promote a cumulative impacts bill under consideration by the PA House.
Date | Thursday, April 2, 2026
Time | 2:00 to 3:00 pm ET
Location | In-person, Wethington 127
