Devon Payne-Sturges
Devon Payne-Sturges is an Associate Professor with GEOH who holds a joint appointment in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. She is energized by the challenge of cumulative environmental health risks and social disparities in environmental health because, says Payne-Sturges, these issues are difficult, complicated and sometimes controversial, from both science and policy perspectives.
Departments/Units
Areas of Interest
Core FacultyStructural Racism and Health; Children's Environmental Health; Environmental Health Disparities; Cumulative Environmental Health Risks and Impacts; Policy Reform
Professional website https://www.devonpayne-sturges.com/
RESPIRAR Project www.respirarproject.org
Urban Equity Collaborative https://urbanequitycollab.org/
Devon Payne-Sturges is an Associate Professor with the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health at the University of Maryland School of Public Health. She also holds a joint appointment in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.
Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Maryland, Payne-Sturges served as Assistant Commissioner for Environmental Health with the Baltimore City Health Department, then later as the Assistant Center Director for Human Health with U.S. EPA’s National Center for Environmental Research, where she focused on biomonitoring for policy analysis, cumulative risk assessment, health impact assessment, environmental health indicator development, children’s environmental health and environmental health of minority populations.
Payne-Sturges' research focuses on racial and economic disparities in exposures to environmental contaminants and associated health risks with the aim of improving the science our society uses to make decisions about environmental policies that impact the health of communities and populations, especially vulnerable, low income and minority populations.
Dr. Payne-Sturges uses systems science methods to make sense of complicated topics such as cumulative environmental health risks and environmental health disparities. Currently she is applying these methods to address structural inequalities that impact migrant and seasonal farmworkers for her RESPIRAR Project. Supported by an R01 award from NIEHS, Dr. Payne-Sturges is leading an interdisciplinary team to unpack the mechanisms through which structural racism shapes the health of migrant and seasonal farmworkers with goal of informing policy interventions. Additionally, Dr. Payne-Sturges is co-leading a new Urban Equity Collaborative (UEC) with funding support from UMD’s Grand Challenges Initiative. The UEC aims to leverage the collective expertise of university researchers in the service of community-led work to address dispossession and displacement, and specifically issues of affordable housing access, immigrant rights, and small business displacement.
Payne-Sturges is energized by the challenge of cumulative environmental health risks and social disparities in environmental health because these issues are difficult, complicated and sometimes controversial, from both science and policy perspectives. She believes that understanding the cumulative effects of multiple risk factors on health is critical for establishing environmental policies that are truly public health protective.
DrPH, MPH
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
MIEH 770 Environmental Law and Policy
MIEH 300 Introduction to Environmental Health: A Public Health Perspective
MIEH 309 Environmental Health Research
U.S.EPA Bronze Medal for Commendable Service for Outstanding Performance and Contribution in Developing and Finalizing EPA’s Six-Year Review of Existing Drinking Water Standards, U.S.EPA, 2012
U.S. EPA Scientific and Technological Achievement Award, Level III, for Advancing health risk interpretation of biomonitoring data for evaluation of policy actions to protect children’s health, 2012
Johns Hopkins Woodrow Wilson Award for Government Service, 2012
U.S.EPA Bronze Medal for Commendable Service for Outstanding Performance and Contribution in Developing ORD’s Sustainable and Healthy Communities Research Program, U.S.EPA, 2014
Advancing Faculty Diversity, University of Maryland, 2014 - 2015
Chesapeake Project Fellow, University of Maryland, 2015
Health Equity Leadership Institute Scholar, University of Maryland/University of Wisconsin, 2015
Philip Merrill Presidential Scholar Faculty Mentor, University of Maryland, 2017
Bruening M§, Argo K*, Payne-Sturges D, Laska MN. 2017. The struggle is real: a systematic review of what is known about food insecurity on post-secondary campuses and what is being done about it. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. 117(11):1767-1791.
Payne-Sturges DC§, Scammell MK, Levy JI, Cory-Slechta DA, Symanski E, Carr Shmool JL, Laumbach R, Linder S, Clougherty JE. 2018. Methods for evaluating the combined effects of chemical and nonchemical exposures for cumulative environmental health risk assessment. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 15(12):pii: E2797.
Craddock HA*, Huang D*, Turner PC, Quirós-Alcalá L, Payne-Sturges DC§+. 2019. Trends in neonicotinoid pesticide residues in food and water in the United States, 1999–2015. Environmental Health. 18:1(7).
Payne-Sturges DC§, Marty MA, Perera F, Miller MD, Swanson M, Ellickson K, Cory-Slechta DA, Ritz B, Balmes J, Anderko L, Talbott EO, Miller E, Gould R, Hertz-Picciotto I. 2019. Healthy air healthy brains: Advancing air pollution policy to protect children’s health. American Journal of Public Health 109(4):550-554.
van Woerden, I., M. Bruening, J. Montresor-Lopez and D. C. Payne-Sturges (2019). "Trends and disparities in urinary BPA concentrations among U.S. emerging adults." Environ Res 176: 108515.
Payne-Sturges DC§, Cory-Slechta DA, Puett RC, Thomas SB, Hammond R, Hovmand PS. 2021. Defining and intervening on cumulative environmental neurodevelopmental risks: Introducing a complex systems approach. Environmental Health Perspectives. 129(3): 35001. PMCID: PMC7945198
Payne-Sturges D§**, Sangaramoorthy** T and Mittmann H*. 2021. Framing environmental health decision-making: The struggle over cumulative impacts policy. Int J Environ Res Public Health 18(8). PMCID: PMC8070174.
Sprinkle R§ and Payne-Sturges D**. 2021. Mixture toxicity, cumulative risk, and environmental justice in United States federal policy, 1980–2016. Environmental Health 20(1).
Payne-Sturges DC§, Gee GC Cory-Slechta DA. 2021. Confronting Racism in Environmental Health Sciences: Moving the Science Forward for Eliminating Racial Inequities. Environ Health Perspect 129(5): 55002. PMCID: PMC8096378.
van Woerden I, Payne-Sturges DC, Whisner CM, Bruening M. 2021. Dietary quality and bisphenols: trends in bisphenol A, F and S exposure in relation to the Healthy Eating Index using representative data from the NHANES 2007-2016. Am J Clin Nutr 114(2): 669-682.
Payne-Sturges DC, Puett RC, Cory-Slechta DA.2022 The Role of Fathers in Racialized Disparities in Prenatal PM2.5 Exposures and Related Impacts on Birth Outcomes: A National-Scale Analysis. Environmental Health. 21(47). PMID: 35513869
Hicken M, Payne-Sturges D, McCoy E. 2023 Evaluating race in air pollution and health research: Race, PM2.5 air pollution exposure, and mortality as a case study. Current Environmental Health Reports. 10(1):1-11; PMID: 36689136