Welcome to the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health (EOH) at the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University!
I am honored to serve as Department Chair. I am an injury epidemiologist whose research focuses on how urban environments affect road safety, particularly for people who walk, bike, and use public transit, in the US and globally.
I was drawn to this work by my love of walking and biking city streets and a desire to make them safer for everyone. Working across disciplines with engineers, urban planners, clinicians, and economists is one of the things I value most about this field, and that interdisciplinary approach is central to environmental and occupational health.
Our department focuses on how physical environments affect health: the air we breathe, the water we drink, the conditions in our workplaces, the design of our neighborhoods, and the hazards created by climate change.
If you are interested in identifying environmental and occupational health risks and developing strategies to prevent or reduce harm, EOH is the department for that work. EOH is grounded in exposure science, toxicology, risk assessment, and prevention, which are the tools needed to understand and act on environmental and workplace threats to health.
We approach this work as an applied, interdisciplinary, and justice-oriented field. Whether the challenge is climate-related health risks, occupational injury, infection prevention, environmental exposures, unhealthy housing, or emergency preparedness, our goal is to generate evidence, evaluate interventions, and develop practical solutions that protect health and advance equity.
One of our greatest strengths is our location. Philadelphia is a living lab for public health — a place where students engage directly with environmental and climate vulnerability, worker health, neighborhood design, and community partnerships. Collaboration with local agencies, health systems, and community organizations gives students opportunities to do meaningful, applied work while still in training.
Undergraduate students can begin exploring environmental health through the minor in Environmental Public Health, which complements any major and provides a foundation for understanding environmental health challenges. Students in the BS in Public Health gain hands-on experience through Drexel’s co-op program, and those ready to accelerate can pursue the 4+1 BS/MPH program to earn both degrees in five years.
At the graduate level, our four degree programs reflect the breadth of the department’s mission: the MPH in Environmental and Occupational Health, the online MPH in Urban Health, the online MS in Infection Prevention and Control, and the PhD in Environmental and Occupational Health. Across all programs, students benefit from close faculty mentorship, hands-on research and practice experiences, and strong connections to public health practice in Philadelphia and beyond.
The department is also home to two research centers: the Center for Firefighter Injury Research and Safety Trends (FIRST), which develops national data systems and prevention strategies for firefighter injuries, and the Center for Public Health Readiness and Communication (CPHRC), which strengthens community resilience and emergency response capacity.
I invite you to explore our programs, meet our faculty and doctoral students, and consider joining our community. Whether your goal is to improve health in cities, make workplaces and healthcare settings safer, reduce environmental risks, or advance public health through research, EOH at Drexel is a place to do that work with rigor and purpose.
Sincerely,
Alex Quistberg, PhD, MPH
Chair and Associate Research Professor
Environmental and Occupational Health