Howard Frumkin has been dean, and professor of environmental and occupational health sciences, at the University of Washington School of Public Health since 2010. From 2005 to 2010, he held leadership roles at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, first as director of the National Center for Environmental Health and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (NCEH/ATSDR), and later as special assistant to the CDC director for climate change and health. From 1990 to 2005, he was professor and chair of environmental and occupational health at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health and professor of medicine at the Emory School of Medicine.
Dr. Frumkin trained in internal medicine, epidemiology, and occupational and environmental medicine. His research interests include public health aspects of the built environment, climate change, energy policy, and nature contact; toxic effects of chemicals; and environmental health policy. He is the author or coauthor of over 200 scientific journal articles and chapters, and his books, in addition to this one, include Urban Sprawl and Public Health (Island Press, 2004, coauthored with Lawrence Frank and Richard Jackson), Emerging Illness and Society (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004, co-edited with Randall Packard, Peter Brown, and Ruth Berkelman), Safe and Healthy School Environments (Oxford University Press, 2006, co-edited with Robert Geller, Leslie Rubin, and Janice Nodvin), Green Healthcare Institutions: Health, Environment, Economics (National Academies Press, 2007, co-edited with Christine Coussens), and Making Healthy Places: Designing and Building for Health, Well-Being, and Sustainability (Island Press, 2011, co-edited with Andrew Dannenberg and Richard Jackson).
Dr. Frumkin has worked with many organizations active at the interface of human health and the environment. He has served on the boards of the Bullitt Foundation, the Children & Nature Network, the Seattle Parks Foundation, the Pacific Northwest Diabetes Research Institute, the U.S. Green Building Council, the Washington Global Health Alliance, Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics, the American Public Health Association, and the National Environmental Education Foundation. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Regional Open Space Strategy for Central Puget Sound, on Procter & Gamble's Sustainability Expert Advisory Panel, on the National Toxicology Program Board of Scientific Counselors, on the National Research Council Committee on Sustainability Linkages in the Federal Government, on the Washington Department of Ecology Toxics Reduction Strategy Group, and on Seattle's Green Ribbon Commission. He has served on advisory boards for the Yale Climate and Energy Institute, the Wellcome Trust Sustaining Health initiative, the National Sustainable Communities Coalition, and the Center for Design and Health at the University of Virginia School of Architecture. As a member of the EPA's Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee, he chaired the Smart Growth and Climate Change work groups. A graduate of the Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership, he was named 2004 Environmental Professional of the Year by the Georgia Environmental Council.
Dr. Frumkin was born in Poughkeepsie, New York. He received his AB degree from Brown University, his MD degree from the University of Pennsylvania, his MPH and DrPH degrees from Harvard University, his internal medicine training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Cambridge Hospital, and his environmental and occupational medicine training at Harvard. He is board certified in internal medicine and in environmental and occupational medicine, and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Collegium Ramazzini, and the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. He is an avid cyclist, paddler, and hiker. He is married to radio journalist Joanne Silberner, and has two children—Gabe, a political campaign worker, and Amara, a health worker.