Erin M. Bell, PhD

Dr. Bell’s research interests include examining the association of environmental exposures and adverse birth and child health outcomes, including neurodevelopment. She is particularly interested in the relationship between social factors and environmental exposures and their combined impact on child development. Dr. Bell most recently served as co-Principal Investigator of the Upstate KIDS study, a cohort study of over 6000 infants designed to examine risk factors for development differences, Autism and additional growth and developmental outcomes.

Currently, she is the co-Principal Investigator with the New York State Department of Health, of a cohort study to recruit and enroll participants into a prospective cohort of adults and children to examine the long-term health effects associated with consumption of drinking water contaminated with per and poly alkyl substances (PFAS).  She previously led the investigations of adverse reproductive outcomes by levels of air pollutants in the New York State Department of Health’s Environmental Health Tracking Program and previously served as a co-PI of the New York Center for the National Birth Defects Prevention Study/BD-STEPS multi-center studies funded by the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC).

Given the strong correlation between excess exposure to environmental contaminants, poverty and racial inequalities, her research and community service have more recently expanded into exploring the health outcomes related to these disparities. She currently serves on the executive committee of the Center for Social and Demographic Analysis and as a member of the Community Advisory Board for the Ezra Prentice neighborhood, an Environmental Justice Community in Albany, NY. She has previously served as a member on three of the Institute of Medicine Committees on Review of the Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans of Exposure to Herbicides. Currently, she is a member of the National Academy of Medicine's Committee on Guidance on PFAS Testing and Health Outcomes.