Brenda Eskenazi

CENTER DIRECTOR

 Professor of Maternal and Child Health and Epidemiology at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health, has, for two decades, studied the effects of environmental exposures to reproductive, perinatal, and children's health. She has conducted extensive research on the reproductive and developmental effects of passive and active exposure to cigarette smoke on fetal and child growth and neurodevelopment as well as the reproductive and developmental effects of caffeine exposure.

Regarded for her groundbreaking work studying the reproductive health risks to women employed by the semiconductor industry in the wafer fabrication process, Dr. Eskenazi was involved in research of the reproductive health effects on women in the maquiladora industries in the US Mexico border. Another area of ongoing research activity for Dr. Eskenazi involves the assessment of the reproductive health of a population of women heavily exposed to dioxin from an explosion in 1976. Specifically, she is determining whether dioxin exposure causes higher rates of endometriosis. Also interested in the hazards of chemical exposure on male reproduction, Dr. Eskenazi is using genetic biomarkers of human sperm to assess the effects of paternal exposure to environmental toxicants on the fetus.

Dr. Eskenazi, a Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology, is widely published. In addition, her expertise has allowed her to serve in a number of capacities, including as a contributor to the 1998 Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Women's Health and for the State of California as a member of the Governor's Scientific Advisory Panel: Developmental and Reproductive Committee for Proposition 65, Toxics Initiative.