training

Certificate Spotlight: Environmental Health with Lindsay Kastner (SPH‘25)

A new series featuring SPH students and alums in Q&As about their experiences with the certificates offered through the on-campus MPH program. This week, an alum shares how her small-town Ohio roots steered her toward a certificate in environmental health.

Growing up, Lindsay Kastner (SPH‘25) enjoyed tagging along with her father, a civil engineer, on his various site inspections around their rural Ohio county. He applied his expertise at the intersection of the natural and built environments to help people in meaningful ways, she recalls. For example, his work might prevent someone’s house from flooding, she says. While Kastner never aspired to become a civil engineer herself, she left home for undergrad with a keen interest in environment science and an inclination for public service.

After beginning her studies at Loyola Chicago, Kastner soon transferred to Colorado State where she took her first course in environmental health while majoring in environmental politics and policy. Her professor noted her enthusiasm for public health and recommended that she explore the subject further by participating in a month-long study abroad trip to Todos Santos, Mexico. Kastner took his advice and when she returned, she immediately began researching MPH programs. She knew then, she says, that she wanted to work in environmental health for the rest of her life.

Upon graduating from Colorado State, Kastner moved to Boston to earn her MPH at SPH, where she quickly found a home in the Department of Environmental Health. On top of attending classes, she assumed the role of research project coordinator for the Boston University Gulf War Illness Research Group, assisting Kim Sullivan, research associate professor of environmental health, to conduct a clinical trial of the effectiveness of the drug N-acetyl cysteine to treat Gulf War Illness, a constellation of symptoms affecting veterans of the 1991 Gulf War that appears to be linked to exposure to environmental toxins. Kastner also completed a practicum with Patricia Janulewicz Lloyd, adjunct associate professor of environmental health, engaging Gulf War veteran cohorts in the LEGACY study, which examines the longitudinal effects of Gulf War Illness, including its effect on reproductive and children’s health. Kastner continues to serve on the project as a research assistant. Also while still a student, Kastner began the other position she still holds today as a program assistant to the New England Public Health Training Center (NEPHTC) and the Local Public Health Intensive Training Program of Massachusetts (LPHIT). In this role, she works with Lloyd and Madeleine Scammell, professor of environmental health, to deliver free, accessible public health training to public health professionals in the New England region.

Kastner graciously shared with SPH her experience as an MPH student in the environmental health certificate program and the advice she would give current students. Newly matriculated and prospective students may now enroll in an updated version of the certificate titled environmental health and justice.

Why did you choose the environmental health certificate at BUSPH?

I felt what was lacking in my undergraduate degree in environmental political science was an understanding of the hard sciences that are integral to environmental health, including courses that are in [SPH’s] program like physiology, toxicology, environmental epidemiology, risk assessment. Doing those calculations, being able to understand how regulatory limits are made—they are not just random numbers—they come from something and a lot of that has to do with biology. BU’s program in environmental health is STEM-certified, and that was important to me. I feel now that I have the skills to know what I’m talking about when it comes to environmental policy.

Could you share a memorable course and/or project you completed as part of the EH certificate?

Risk assessment was my favorite class in the environmental health program, and I am planning to be a TA for it this coming fall as an alum. Jonathan Buonocore, the professor, really made an effort to have people work on real-life situations. My group worked on a case study of a community in Beloit, Wisconsin, living next to these big power plants that [were] looking to expand. The community was trying to compile evidence to fight back against the expansion of this big company. So, we worked on a risk assessment [to understand] what their exposure is, living next to this existing plant over the past year, using EPA annual emissions data [and] some plume modeling that Jonathan helped us with. It was really cool to be able to present the risk assessment to a member of the community in the final class. We worked with her to submit it as a public comment, and that was exactly what I always wanted—let’s do something real world, and we did it. It was awesome to see it come to life!

Were there any elective courses that you took outside of the EH certificate that you particularly enjoyed?

I took intro to SAS. I actually did end up enjoying it, though I was really scared of it. I was intimidated, but I’m really happy to say that I know how to [code]. I think it’s important for environmental health, if you are going into research, to be able to know how to work with that data, whether you take SAS or R. I [also] took health economics during a time where I thought I might go into health policy. It was hard, but I’m also happy to say I have that skill.

What are your long-term aspirations in the field?

I would love to be an environmental epidemiologist at the state or federal level, working on maternal and child health outcomes. Right now, real world—I am just trying to stay involved in research here at BU, [working and] volunteering with the BU environmental health department. We’re going out to Rockport, Massachusetts right now to do some noise monitoring for a local community living near the commuter rail. I’m doing that with [Professor] Kirwa; Stephanie Grady, a postdoc; Jean Costello, a postdoc; and Selene Vences, who is a current PhD student in the department.

What advice do you have for someone who might be considering the EH certificate?

I would say that the EH certificate gives you a lot of diverse, hard skills that you can put on a resume. [It] is awesome to be able to walk out of that program and say, “I know how to do GIS. I know how to perform a risk assessment. I know how to write an NIH grant proposal”— that is the final project in the environmental epidemiology course. I am a mentor for some new MPH students and my advice to them, and to anyone, is to just put yourself out there. Don’t worry about looking silly or making a misstep. I aged so much in the two years I was in this program and really figured out what I wanted to do with my life. It seems like it’s going to go by quick—and it does—but you learn a lot.