Public Health Data Support - ORAU

The EPA National Student Services Contract has an immediate opening for a full time Public Health Data Support position with the Office of Research and Development at the EPA facility in Washington, DC.  

The Office of Research and Development at the EPA supports high-quality research to improve the scientific basis for decisions on national environmental issues and help EPA achieve its environmental goals. Research is conducted in a broad range of environmental areas by scientists in EPA laboratories and at universities across the country.

What the EPA project is about

EPA's Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment (CPHEA) is a leader in the science of human health and ecological risk assessment, a process used to determine how pollutants or other stressors may impact human health and the environment. The Center occupies a critical position in EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) between researchers in other parts of ORD and outside of EPA who are generating new findings and data and the regulators in EPA’s program and regional offices who must make regulatory, enforcement, and remedial action decisions.

CPHEA addresses the needs of stakeholders by preparing technical reports and assessments that integrate and evaluate the most up-to-date research. These products serve as a major component of the scientific foundation supporting EPA's regulations and policies. CPHEA also conducts cutting-edge research to develop innovative methods and approaches that help extrapolate between experimental data and real-world scenarios, improve our understanding of uncertainties, and facilitate careful weighing of evidence.

The Integrated Health Assessment Branch (IHAB) is primarily responsible for developing the Integrated Science Assessments (ISAs) on the human health and welfare (e.g., ecological, climate, visibility, and materials) effects of the criteria air pollutants including particulate matter, ozone, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and lead as mandated by the Clean Air Act. These highly influential science assessments form the scientific basis for the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. CPHEA assessments have significant implications for national and international environmental policy development and implementation.

Development of ISAs to draw conclusions on the health effects related to ambient air pollution exposure includes the identification, evaluation, and integration of evidence from the peer-reviewed literature, particularly from epidemiology, controlled human exposure, and animal toxicological studies.  In developing ISAs, hundreds of thousands of references are identified in literature searches, and after screening and evaluating, more than a thousand references are included in these scientific documents. To effectively manage such a vast body of references, CPHEA developed the Health and Environmental Research Online (HERO) database and has more recently started exploring tools to improve efficiency (e.g., SWIFT-ActiveScreener) and adapt state-of-the-art systematic review methodologies to the assessment process.

As a team member, you will provide technical assistance in a variety of tasks involved in the development of the Integrated Science Assessments. Examples of this include, but are not limited to: literature screening, data curation and extraction, visualization of health effects evidence, and quality assurance checks. The participant will be a member of the experimental health science team in IHAB in CPHEA, comprised of epidemiologists and toxicologists.

Literature screening will include:

• Reading titles/abstracts and full-text scientific health studies to determine relevance;
• Utilize or test software screening tools (e.g. SWIFT-ActiveScreener, Distiller); and
• Tracking references according to systematic review methodology, typically done through tagging of references in the Health and Environmental Research Online (HERO) database.

Data curation, extraction, and visualization will include:

• Verification of data to ensure correctness and completeness in assessments;
• Performance of data extraction from studies evaluating health effects related to air pollution exposure into specified formats and templates;
• Utilizing existing tools and testing new analysis tools for exploring and visualizing data;
• Creating data visualizations to present health effects data, both spatially (using GIS software) and quantitatively; and
• Developing summary tables to present key scientific information on health effects related to air pollution exposure in a variety of quantitative and qualitative formats.

Software/tool testing and integration will include:

• Exploration of tools and their application in assessment work with guidance from IHAB scientists; and
• Assist in the integration of tools already in use (e.g. SWIFT-ActiveScreener/HERO) and development and testing of new tools where needs are identified.

General project support will include:

• Maintaining good communication with project teams;
• Documentation of methods and approaches for various tools and applications in assessment development; and
• Assist in logistics and coordination of activities for meetings, briefings, and workshops.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Work Experience, and Education

• Research experience on a topic relevant to human health;
• Experience reading and summarizing scientific manuscripts related to human health;
• Experience in technical scientific writing and editing;
• Experience with scientific data in at least one of the following fields or closely related fields: epidemiology, environmental science, toxicology, and chemistry;
• Experience in programming in one or more languages, including but not limited to Python, R, MATLAB, and SAS;
• Strong written and oral communication skills;
• Strong organizational skills and experience in successfully handling multiple assignments with competing deadlines;
• Excellent interpersonal skills;
• Experience working well as a part of a team; and
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications (i.e., Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook).

Location:  This job will be located EPA’s facility in Washington, DC.

Salary: Selected applicant will become a temporary employee of ORAU and will receive an hourly wage of $25.17 for hours worked.

Hours: Full-time.

Travel: Occasional overnight travel may be required.

Expected start date: The position is full time and expected to begin October 2024. The selected applicant will become a temporary employee of ORAU working as a contractor to EPA. 

For more information, contact EPANSSC@orau.org. Do not contact EPA directly.

• Be at least 18 years of age and
• Have earned at least a Bachelor’s degree in a basic or applied science, including but not limited to chemistry, biostatistics, biology, or public health, from an accredited university or college within the last 24 months and
• Be a citizen of the United States of America or a Legal Permanent Resident.

EPA ORD employees, their spouses, and children are not eligible to participate in this program.