A member of the National Academy of Medicine, Dean Maureen Lichtveld has nearly 40 years of experience in environmental public health. Since Jan. 1, 2021, Lichtveld has overseen the growth and continued success of Pitt Public Health—a community that spans seven academic departments, 1,200 students, 165 faculty, and 320 support staff and a National Institutes of Health funded research portfolio of approximately $100 million, ranking Pitt Public Health sixth in NIH-funding nationwide.
Under her leadership, Pitt Public Health has launched transformative initiatives in education and research. She launched Pittsburgh's first Bachelor of Science in Public Health program, growing enrollment from 50 to 500 students in just three years. She also founded the Public Health Science Academy, a partnership with Pittsburgh Public Schools that gives high school juniors and seniors a pathway into public health careers. Her commitment to making science work for communities is reflected in partnership with local organizations and the Allegheny County Health Department.
Lichtveld’s national and global environmental health research examines the cumulative impact of chemical and non-chemical stressors on communities facing environmental health threats, disasters including pandemics and health disparities. An internationally recognized environmental health scientist, Lichtveld's research spans environmentally induced disease, One Health, climate and health, disaster preparedness, and community resilience. She chairs Pennsylvania's One Health Consortium—the only public health dean to do so.
Previously, she spent 15 years at Tulane University and 18 years with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. There, she designed public health research tools and protocols—adopted by all states nationwide—to guide national environmental health studies in communities living near hazardous waste sites.
A widely respected researcher and scholar, Lichtveld serves on a number of boards, including the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, Board on Global Health, the One Health Action Collaborative, NAM's committee on Climate and Health, the Advisory Committee for the NASEM-wide Climate Communications Initiative.
Among her many professional highlights: She has chaired the editorial board of the American Journal of Public Health for two terms, served on the board of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health, and earned recognition as the CDC’s Environmental Health Scientist of the Year, and Woman of the Year of the City of New Orleans for her contributions to science.
Experience
- Professor and Chair, Environmental Health Sciences and Freeport McMoRan Chair of Environmental Policy, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, 2005-2020
- Associate Director for Population Sciences, Tulane University Cancer Center, Louisiana Cancer Research Consortium, 2005-2020
- Director, Center for Gulf Coast Environmental Health Research, Leadership and Strategic Initiatives Tulane University, 2012-2020
- Director, GROWH Research Consortium, 2011-2017
- Associate Director, Workforce Development & Director, Office of Workforce Planning and Policy, Public Health Practice Program Office, CDC, 2000-2004
- Director, Division of Health Education and Promotion, ATSDR, 1995-2000
- Chief Biomedical Officer for Public Health Practice, Public Health Practice Coordination Group, Office of the Assistant Administrator, CDC, 1993-1995
- 1986 | Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD | Master of Public Health in Environmental Health Sciences
- 1981 | Anton de Kom University of Suriname, Faculty of Medicine | Doctor of Medicine
- 1973 | Dr. J. C. De Miranda College, Suriname | Bachelor of Science
- Lichtveld, M., de Freitas, L., Wahid, F. A., Hospedales, J., Balatbat, C. and Hanley, C. 2025. Climate and Health Research Innovation Workshop in the Caribbean. NAM Perspectives. Discussion Proceeding, National Academy of Medicine, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.31478/202509c.
- Co- author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Potential Environmental Effects of Nuclear War. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/27515.
- Covert, H. H., Abdoel Wahid, F., Wenzel, S. E., & Lichtveld, M.Y. (2023). Climate Change Impacts on Respiratory Health: Exposure, Vulnerability, and Risk. Physiol Rev. 2023 Oct 1; 103 (4): 2507-2522. Doi: 10.1152/physrev. 00043.2022. PMID: 37326296
- Kuchipudi, S. V., Tan, C., van Dorp, L., Lichtveld, M., Pickering, B., Bowman, J., ... & Balloux, F. (2023). Coordinated surveillance is essential to monitor and mitigate the evolutionary impacts of SARS-CoV-2 spillover and circulation in animal hosts. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 7(7), 956-959.
- Koendjbiharie, A. Ph., Hindori-Mohangoo, A.D., Zijlmans, W.C.W.R., Wickliffe, J,K., Shankar, A., Covert, H.H., Lichtveld, M.Y., Grunberg, A.W., & Drury, S. (2023). The Single and Combined Effects of Non-Chemical Stressors and Lead on Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Toddlers: Results from the CCREOH Environmental Epidemiologic Study, Suriname. Children, 10 (2),287.
- Alcala, C.S.; Lichtveld, M.Y.; Wickliffe, J.K.; Zijlmans, W.; Shankar, A.; Rokicki, E.; Covert, H.; Abdoel Wahid, F.Z.; Hindori-Mohangoo, A.D.; van Sauers-Muller, A.; van Dijk, C.; Roosblad, J.; Codrington, J.; Wilson, M.J. Characterization of Urinary Pesticide Metabolite Concentrations of Pregnant Women in Suriname. Toxics 2022, 10, 679. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics10110679
- Fuller, R., Landrigan, P. J., Balakrishnan, K., Bathan, G., Bose-O'Reilly, S., Brauer, M., ... Lichtveld, M…. & Yan, C. (2022). Pollution and health: a progress update. The Lancet Planetary Health, 6(6), e535-e547.
- Wickliffe, J., Lichtveld, M., Zijlmans, C.W., MacDonald-Ottevanger, S., Shafer, M., Dahman, C., Harville, E., Drury, S., Landburg, G., & Ouboter, P. (2021). Exposure to total and methylmercury among pregnant women in Suriname: Sources and public health implications. Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, 31, 117–125.
- Zijlmans, W.C.W.R., Wickliffe, J.K., Hindori-Mohangoo, A.D., MacDonald-Ottevanger, M.S., Ouboter, P.E., Landburg, G.A., Codrington, J., Roosblad, J., Baldewsingh, G.K., Ramjatan, R., Gokoel, A., Abdoel Wahid, F., Fortes Soares, L., Alcala, C.S., Boedhoe, E., Grünberg, A.W.E., Hawkins, W.B., Shankar, A., Harville, E.W., Drury, S.S., Covert, H.H., & Lichtveld, M.Y. (2020). Cohort profile: The Caribbean Consortium for Research in Environmental and Occupational Health (CCREOH) Cohort Study: Influences of complex environmental exposures on maternal and child health in Suriname. BMJ Open,10 (9), e034702.
- Lichtveld, M., Covert, H., Sherman, M., Shankar, A., Wickliffe, J., & Alcala, C. (2019). Advancing environmental health literacy: Validated scales of general environmental health and environmental media-specific knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health,16(21), 4157.
- Covert, H., Sherman, M., Miner, K., & Lichtveld, M. (2019). Core competencies and a workforce framework for community health workers: A model for advancing the profession. American Journal of Public Health, 109(2), 320-327.
- Misser, V. H. S., Hindori-Mohangoo, A. D., Shankar, A., Lichtveld, M., Wickliffe, J., & Mans, D. R. (2024). Possible Risk Factors and Their Potential Associations with Combined Heavy Metal Exposures in Pregnant Women in the Republic of Suriname. Annals of Global Health, 90(1).
- Lichtveld, M., de Freitas, L., Wahid, F. A., Hospedales, J., Balatbat, C. and Hanley, C. 2025. Climate and Health Research Innovation Workshop in the Caribbean. NAM Perspectives. Discussion Proceeding, National Academy of Medicine, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.31478/202509c.
- Pan, K., Beitsch, L., Gonsoroski, E., Sherchan, S.P., Uejio, C.K., Lichtveld, M.Y., & Harville, E.W. (2021). Effects of Hurricane Michael on access to care for pregnant women and associated pregnancy outcomes.International Journal of Environmental Research & Public Health,18, 390.
- Wickliffe, J., Lichtveld, M., Zijlmans, C.W., MacDonald-Ottevanger, S., Shafer, M., Dahman, C., Harville, E., Drury, S., Landburg, G., & Ouboter, P. (2021). Exposure to total and methylmercury among pregnant women in Suriname: Sources and public health implications.Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, 31, 117–125.
- Wickliffe, J.K., Stock, T.H., Howard, J.L., Frahm. E., Simon-Friedt, B., Montgomery, K., Wilson, M.J., Lichtveld, M.Y., & Harville, E. (2020). Increased long-term health risks attributable to select volatile organic compounds in residential indoor air in southeast Louisiana.Scientific Reports,10, 21649.
- Covert, H., Sherman, M., Le, D., & Lichtveld, M. (2020). Environmental health risk relationships, responsibility, and sources of information among Vietnamese Americans in coastal Mississippi.Health, Risk, and Society, 22(5-6), 362-376.
- Lichtveld, M., Covert, H., El-Dahr, J., Grimsley, L.F., Cohn, R., Hayes Watson, C., Thornton, E., & Kennedy, S. (2020). A community-based participatory research approach to Hurricane Katrina: When disasters, environmental health threats and disparities collide.American Journal of Public Health, 110 (10), 1485-1489.
- Zijlmans, W.C.W.R., Wickliffe, J.K., Hindori-Mohangoo, A.D., MacDonald-Ottevanger, M.S., Ouboter, P.E., Landburg, G.A., Codrington, J., Roosblad, J., Baldewsingh, G.K., Ramjatan, R., Gokoel, A., Abdoel Wahid, F., Fortes Soares, L., Alcala, C.S., Boedhoe, E., Grünberg, A.W.E., Hawkins, W.B., Shankar, A., Harville, E.W., Drury, S.S., Covert, H.H., & Lichtveld, M.Y. (2020). Cohort profile: The Caribbean Consortium for Research in Environmental and Occupational Health (CCREOH) Cohort Study: Influences of complex environmental exposures on maternal and child health in Suriname.BMJ Open,10 (9), e034702.
- Lichtveld, M., Covert, H., Sherman, M., Shankar, A., Wickliffe, J., & Alcala, C. (2019). Advancing environmental health literacy: Validated scales of general environmental health and environmental media-specific knowledge, attitudes, and behavior.International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health,16(21), 4157.
- Covert, H., Sherman, M., Miner, K., & Lichtveld, M. (2019). Core competencies and a workforce framework for community health workers: A model for advancing the profession.American Journal of Public Health, 109(2), 320-327.
- Sherman, M., Covert, H., Brown, L., Langhinrichsen-Rohling, J., Hansel T., Rehner, T., Buckner, A., & Lichtveld, M. (2019). Enterprise evaluation: A new opportunity for public health policy.Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 25 (5), 479-489.
- Juarez, P.D., Matthews-Juarez, P., Hood, D.B., Im, W., Levine, R.S., Kilbourne, B.J., Langston, M.A., Al-Hamdan, M.Z., Crosson, W.L., Estes, M.G., Estes, S.M., Agboto, V.K., Robinson, P., Wilson, S., & Lichtveld, M.Y. (2014). The public health exposome: a population-based, exposure science approach to health disparities research.International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 11 (12), 12866-95.
- Lichtveld, M., Sherchan, S., Gam, K. B., Kwok, R. K., Mundorf, C., Shankar, A., & Soares, L. (2016). The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill through the lens of human health and the ecosystem. Current Environmental Health Reports, 3 (4), 370-378.
- Mundorf, C., Shankar, A., Peng, T., Hassan, A., & Lichtveld, M.Y.(2017). Therapeutic relationship and study adherence in a community health worker-led intervention. Journal of Community Health,42 (1), 21-29.
