Cheryl Fields, MPH

Cheryl Fields is a Lecturer in Epidemiology & Public Health at Yale University, where she teaches graduate courses in toxicology and risk assessment. She received her BA in biology from New York University and earned her MPH in Environmental Health Sciences at Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University.

Before joining Jonathan Borak and Company in 2003, she worked as a Research Coordinator in the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where her research focused on the growth and neurological development of children following pre- and post-natal exposures to lead, pesticides, and PCBs. Prior to that, she worked on the research staff at the Columbia University Center for Children’s Environmental Health where she contributed to studies of the adverse impacts of chemical exposures and emotional trauma in pregnant women (resulting from the 9/11 World Trade Center collapse) on the growth and neurological development on their fetuses. She has also worked as a research assistant in the Molecular and Cell Biology laboratory at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, where she studied murine embryogenic muscle development.

As a Research Scientist at Jonathan Borak and Company, Ms. Fields’ work combines expertise in toxicology and epidemiology. She provides consultative and research services on issues involving environmental and occupational toxicology and their effects on public health. Her recent work includes a critical review of the toxicologic, epidemiologic and medical literature on the respiratory effects of methyl methacrylate monomer; summaries of epidemiological data on the risks of cancer and congenital defects related to industrial solvent exposures (e.g., benzene, vinyl chloride, perchloroethylene, MTBE) and lifestyle factors (e.g., obesity, diabetes, smoking); and a state-of-the-art literature review on the neurological and renal effects of occupational exposures to elemental mercury. Other projects have included an evidence-based critique of screening tests for beryllium sensitization, and systematic reviews of the toxicity of beauty product components to assess potential for long-term health effects, and the toxicological properties of flame retardant chemicals.