Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPHCeleste Monforton is Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health. 
Protecting worker safety is not only a professional commitment for Dr. Monforton, it is a personal passion. And she has turned that passion into action, scouring the fine print in public records to discover that U.S. Labor Department officials were preparing to gut longstanding worker protections, and meeting surreptitiously with miners to learn how company officials concealedasbestos and other hazards when federal inspectors were coming. Professor Monforton remains an advocate and a troubleshooter, working both within and outside the system. She entered graduate school after more than a decade of government service in the Labor Department, initially as a legislative analyst at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and then at the Mine Safety and Health Administration, where she was policy advisor and chief of staff to the Assistant Secretary. Following the Sago Mine disaster of 2006, which killed 12 coal miners, she paused her doctoral research to assist the investigation launched by the West Virginia governor. Dr. Monforton joined SPHHS in 2006, where she has become infamous among undergraduate students for her field trips - taking them to visit a sewage treatment plant, to don protective firefighting gear at a firehouse, and to remove plastics and styrofoam from the Potomac River. She is a regular contributor to the "Pump Handle," a blog known as "a water cooler for the public health crowd." EducationBachelor of Arts (Liberal studies), University of Michigan, 1990 TeachingPubH 172: Health and the Environment, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health ResearchDr. Monforton's research interests focus on occupational injury and illness epidemiology, prevention strategies, regulatory policies and the precautionary use of evidence to reduce population risk to environmental hazards. Community ServiceProfessor Monforton is a volunteer activist with United Support and Memorial for Workplace Fatalities, an advocacy group for family members of workers killed on the job. The nonprofit organization seeks to build a strong activist voice for reforms to prevent work-related injuries, illnesses and fatalities. She also chairs the Occupational Health and Safety Section of the American Public Health Association. DepartmentsPublications |
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