In honor of Women’s History Month, we wanted to highlight our Institute scientists and their research areas. We appreciate their hard work and dedication to help improve the lives of workers through their diverse areas of scientific studies in occupational health sciences.

• Amanda McCullough, Ph.D. studies environmental and chemical exposures and their impacts on human disease. Her research is focused on translating fundamental discoveries involving cellular DNA damage response pathways into actionable clinical interventions and improved therapeutic response. Her current investigations aim to understand how alterations in DNA repair and mutation tolerance affect the initiation, progression and treatment of human cancers. Learn more about Dr. McCullough’s research.
• Caren Weinhouse, Ph.D. studies mechanisms of transcriptional regulation and epigenetic patterning in response to environmental cues or stressors. Her goal is to translate basic science findings in cell culture and mice to human population settings or “bench to community.” Dr. Weinhouse’s areas of interest and research ranges from Chromatin priming, Chromatin features of inducible gene, and Gene x environment interactions in epigenetic patterning. Learn more about Dr. Weinhouse’s research.
• Doris Kretzschmar, Ph.D. is a Scientist studying Drosophila (fruit flies) to better understand basic mechanisms of neurodegeneration or the progressive degeneration of the adult nervous system. Dr. Kretzschmar’s research areas look at risks associated with blue light, as well as Alzheimer’s and sleep disruption using animal models. Learn more about Dr. Kretzschmar’s research.
• Emily Huang, Ph.D. researches and investigates methods for improving occupational safety and health. She develops and validates various organizational climate scales, implements occupational safety climate scales with companies and organizations, and builds industry databases/benchmarks. The mission of her lab is to help organizations build good workplace culture and climate. Dr. Huang utilizes a systems approach and holistic view to advance organizational climate assessment and facilitate the use of occupational safety and health interventions. Learn more about Dr. Huang’s Safety Climate Lab research.
• Leslie B. Hammer, Ph.D. is an expert in Occupational Health Psychology and specializes in the health effects of supportive supervision at work, and on the health consequences of work-family conflict. She has decades of experience in designing, implementing, and evaluating worksite interventions and supervisor training. Her research focuses on how organizations can help reduce work and family stress and improve positive spillover. Dr. Hammer is also the Co-Director of the Oregon Healthy Workforce Center, one of six Centers of Excellence for Total Worker Health® funded by NIOSH. Learn more about Dr. Hammer’s research.
• Miranda Lim, Ph.D. research goals aim to discover how sleep modulates processes in the developing brain and in neurodegenerative disease, and to directly translate basic sleep research findings in rodent models into the clinical practice of neurology and sleep medicine. The Lim Lab is interested in the interface between sleep and common neurological disorders, such as Traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, autism, and Alzheimer’s disease. Learn more about Dr. Lim’s research.
• Nicole Bowles, Ph.D. research focuses on circadian rhythms, behavior, and cannabinoid signaling affect cardiovascular physiology. Her research looks at stress and endocannabinoid signaling in humans to assess the relationship between the circadian and stress systems and their potential impact on mental health. She uses community-based participatory research frameworks to shift working populations, such as on-duty Oregon firefighters. Her community engaged methods brings diverse populations into a lab environment where she is able to control the environment and behaviors to measure sleep and circadian phase. Learn more about Dr. Bowles research.
• Suzanne Mitchell, Ph.D. is an affiliate Institute Scientist that also conducts research in OHSU’s Department of Behavioral Neuroscience. Dr. Mitchell’s research focuses on the mechanisms underlying economic choices by examining the role of the energetic costs and benefits in feeding decisions. Her studies looking at energetic costs in animal models examine when choices are maladaptive and impulsive, including the role of genetics in their decision-making biases. Her research has recently increased its scope to include effort-related decision-making in clinical populations. Learn more about Dr. Mitchell’s research.

Interested in learning more about our research? Visit our Institute’s Research page.

Also, check out additional readings from OHSU in honor of Women’s History Month, such as OHSU’s Historical Collections and Archives recently wrote a piece on trailblazing Oregon women in Health Sciences which features OHSU’s library’s new exhibit curated by Pamela Pierce, Digital Scholarship and Repository Librarian.