Rutgers School of Public Health
683 Hoes Lane West – Piscataway, NJ 08854
Phone: (732) 235-5409
Dr. Derek G. Shendell, D.Env (UCLA 2003), MPH (Yale University 1998), BA (Dartmouth College 1996) is an Associate Professor, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health & Justice, Rutgers School of Public Health (SPH). In addition, he is Principal Investigator/Director of NJ Safe Schools Program.
The NJ Safe Schools Program team, led by Dr. Shendell, has become a national leader—with access to their website-based materials reaching a worldwide audience consistently over the last five years—in the area of young worker safety and health, particularly concerning online injury surveillance and science-based cosmetology safety and health training with evaluation tools to assess immediate impacts on knowledge, awareness and attitudes of adolescents and young adult workers and their supervisors/teachers in public secondary or high schools. His doctoral-level research and other projects during years at E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and subsequent agency (e.g., State of California survey) and non-profit studies, provided the significant justification for the ongoing use and sustainability/availability of U.S. EPA IAQ Tools for Schools Program, multiple state and local laws and policies around environmental preferable purchasing, and improved mechanical ventilation with proper filtration in public, private and charter K-12 schools. Through UMDNJ/Rutgers and Yale Engineering he published 1st peer-reviewed paper worldwide to use quantitative measures of estimated exposures to specific genera and species of fungi in house dust—collected from floors in main living areas with peer-reviewed method and of health outcomes, i.e., lung function (spirometry), among older adults with doctor-diagnosed asthma and/or chronic bronchitis (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). This field and laboratory research improved asthma epidemiology and led to other groups in the U.S. and the E.U. to conduct similar analyses for children with asthma using banked dust samples and these advanced lab techniques (qPCR, then next-generation sequencing). His team””s development of and publication about the “Central California Outdoor Air Quality Flag Program,” with a science-based description and initial evaluation data, and conference presentations before it, led to expansion of this voluntary program, with formal EPA and American Lung Association endorsement, throughout not only State of California but also the entire U.S. Indeed, this program was adopted and remains sustainable through EPA and Sustainable Jersey for Schools certification program.
Dr. Shendell “bridges” science, education and policy in a multidisciplinary fashion to reduce and/or prevent environmental exposures and health effects. He focuses on community/schools-based research with local participation in planning and execution; educational training (in-person and online/hybrid) and materials, service and technical assistance; and, evidence-based policy recommendations. Dr. Shendell also, as Director of the NJ Safe Schools Program (http://www.njsafeschools.org), leads injury surveillance for both adolescents/young adult workers on- and off-campus and student-athletes, cosmetology and Right to Know, science-to-policy, regular statewide e-communications, and training for teachers, supervisors and administrators as well as students in secondary career-technical-vocational education concerning safety and health, child labor laws and wage and hour laws. Dr. Shendell also leads an Interagency Alliance for Young Worker Safety and Health in NJ.
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