Tanmayi Amanchi is a research fellow with the California Department of Public Health through the Public Health Laboratory Fellowship Program: an APHL-CDC Initiative. She recently earned her Master of Public Health degree in Epidemiology with a certificate in Applied Biostatistics and Data Science from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Developmental Sciences with a specialization in Healthy Aging and a minor in General Biology from University of California, San Diego. Her experience spans public health data management, aging-focused health policy, and direct patient care. She supported initiatives at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the John A. Hartford Foundation, and in various clinical care settings. She brings strong analytical skills in SAS, SQL, and GIS to her work and is passionate about environmental health and healthy aging. As a fellow, she contributes to projects addressing indoor air quality and public health surveillance. 

Umyeena Bashir, M.S., M.P.H.

Umyeena Bashir is a research fellow with the California Department of Public Health through the Public Laboratory Fellowship Program: APHL-CDC Initiative. She received her first master’s in chemistry at the University of San Francisco, focusing on organic chemistry research. After graduation, she worked in industry as a medicinal chemist, where she built DNA-encoded libraries for high thorough drug discovery pipelines. She went back  to school to get her second master’s in public health from the University of California. Berkeley. Umyeena has also served as an intimate care fellow for Women’s Voices for the Earth, where she advocated for the Menstrual Right to Know Act (H.R. 8829), a bill that establishes labeling requirements for menstrual products. In addition, she served as a patient stake holder for the PCRHP group at University of California, San Francisco, where she advised on projects at UCSF related to reproductive health studies. Umyeena comes to CDPH with a strong background in laboratory research with a public health framework. Here at CDPH, her research focus is air quality analysis of VOCs, PFAs, PAHs, and other pollutants that emerge from California wildfires.

Rosemary Castorina, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Rosemary Castorina is a research scientist with the California Department of Public Health and the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Dr. Castorina has performed research examining environmental exposures and health effects in families with children for over 20 years. She has worked extensively to characterize pre- and postnatal exposures to environmental toxicants, determined factors that influence exposure, and quantified resultant health risks. Her work has focused on pesticides, flame retardants, emerging pollutants such as PFAS, VOCs, black carbon, and synthetic food colors. Currently, she is conducting air pollution exposure assessment and biomonitoring studies in communities of the San Joaquin Valley. She has authored (or co-authored) over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and reports.

Kelly Chen, Ph.D.

Kelly Chen is a research scientist with the California Department of Public Health. She received her B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, Davis and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Nevada, Reno. She is experienced in industrial hygiene sampling and analysis as well as micro-spectroscopy and non-destructive environmental forensics techniques. Her current work focuses on the elemental characterization of particulate matter collected from wildfires and other non-point sources of air pollution. She has authored (or coauthored) over 10 journal articles. 

Wenhao Chen, Ph.D.

Wenhao Chen is a research scientist with the California Department of Public Health. She holds a B.S. and a M.S. in Civil Engineering from Tianjin University, China and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Syracuse University with emphasis on building environmental system and indoor air quality. Dr. Chen’s research focuses on how to apply and improve engineering methods to control indoor pollutants and to reduce human exposure. She has expertise in testing and modeling chemical emissions from indoor materials/products, characterizing electronic vaping devices and their chemical emissions, developing indoor air cleaning technologies, and integrated building environmental system design. She has authored (or co-authored) over 50 journal and conference papers.​

Niloufar ‘Neely’ Kazerouni, Dr.P.H., M.P.H.

Neely Kazerouni is the Air Quality Investigations Unit Supervisor at the California Department of Public Health, with over 20 years of experience in exposure and risk assessment, epidemiology, and environmental health. Her expertise includes air pollution, respiratory health, toxicology, and public health surveillance, with a focus on protecting vulnerable populations. She holds a B.A. in Chemistry/Biochemistry from UC San Diego, an M.P.H. from George Washington University, and a Dr.P.H. in Epidemiology from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. She has held leadership roles at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and CDPH. At NCI, she researched environmental carcinogens and risk assessment. At CDC, she assessed air pollution health risks and led diesel exposure studies. As an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer, she investigated environmental exposures and evaluated public health surveillance systems. At CDPH, Dr. Kazerouni has led statewide surveillance programs, epidemiologic studies, and data-driven public health initiatives addressing health disparities. She has authored over 90 peer-reviewed articles, abstracts, reports, and a book chapter. In her current role, she leads efforts to improve air quality in California through research, exposure assessments, and policy-driven solutions to safeguard public health.

Kazukiyo Kumagai, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.Eng., FRSPH, FSHASEJ 

Kazukiyo (Kazu) Kumagai leads the Air Quality Section at the California Department of Public Health. He also serves as an Affiliate Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and an Adjunct Professor at Tokyo University of Science. With over 30 years of experience as a Public Health Engineer, Dr. Kumagai specializes in air quality monitoring, exposure assessment, and the development and evaluation of technologies to reduce exposure to indoor and outdoor air pollutants. His work is closely aligned with air quality policy and its practical implementation. While in Japan, he contributed to national committees and projects focused on establishing indoor air quality building codes and environmental standards for educational facilities.
Dr. Kumagai is an active member of the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate, the International Society of Exposure Science, and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, among other organizations dedicated to atmospheric environments. He also represents ANSI/ASTM in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO TC/146/SC 6 Indoor Air). He holds a B.Eng. and M.Eng. in Architectural Engineering from Tokyo University of Science, an MPH in Environmental Health Science from the Institute of Public Health in Japan, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Science from the University of Tokyo.

April Le

April Le is an intern with the California Department of Public Health. She is a junior majoring in Molecular Cell Biology and Spanish at UC Berkeley. Her internship project at the CDPH Air Quality Section focuses on a pilot indoor air quality survey and monitoring in congregate shelters. 

Alandra Lopez, Ph.D.

Alandra Lopez is a research scientist in the Air Quality Section, with a focus on understanding how wildfire smoke and related air pollutants affect health. She earned her B.A. in Chemistry and Earth and Oceanographic Sciences from Bowdoin College and Ph.D. in Earth System Science from Stanford University. As a Stanford-LSHTM Human and Planetary Health Postdoctoral Fellow, she studied the chemistry of wildfire and prescribed fire smoke and contributed to NIH-funded research on rural groundwater quality using geospatial modeling and community-led sampling. She also served as a research scientist with Stanford’s Project Unleaded, advancing methods to detect lead in consumer products. Her work combines field air sampling, laboratory analysis, and data modeling to investigate the physical and chemical properties of smoke and support strategies that reduce exposure risks for California communities.

Janet Macher, Sc.D., M.P.H., FISIAQ (Retired)

Janet Macher was an air pollution research specialist with the California Department of Public Health and continues to collaborate with the Air Quality Section. She has a master’s degree from the University of California and doctorate from Harvard University with emphasis on environmental health, public health, and microbiology. Dr. Macher has studied engineering measures to control airborne infectious and hypersensitivity diseases, evaluated methods to collect and identify airborne biological material, conducted laboratory and field studies on the recognition and measurement of dampness, and participated in epidemiological research in the state of California. Dr. Macher is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Association for Aerosol Research, the American Association for Microbiology, the American Public Health Association, the Gesellshaft für Aerosol Forschung; and the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate.

Mark Mendell, Ph.D., FISIAQ (Retired)

Mark Mendell, Ph.D., was  an Air Pollution Research Specialist  from the Indoor Air Quality Section of the California Department of Public Health and a Staff Scientist/Epidemiologist in the Indoor Environment Department at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. Dr. Mendell is on the editorial board of the journal Indoor Air and a member of the International Academy of Indoor Air Sciences. He holds a B.A. from Cornell University; a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the University of Oregon; and a Ph.D. in epidemiology from the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Dr. Mendell has worked for over 20 years in the field of environmental epidemiology, focused on health effects related to indoor environments in buildings. His work includes field research to help understand relationships between specific factors and conditions in buildings and health effects in occupants, and critical reviews of the literature on specific environment/health relationships in buildings.  Support for his work has come from the California Energy Commission, the U.S. Green Building Council, the U.S. EPA, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. General Services Administration, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the National Center for Environmental Health, and the World Health Organization.

Jeff Murray, B.S.

Jeff Murray is an intern with the California Department of Public Health. He holds a B.S. in Environmental Toxicology from the University of California, Davis and is a master’s student in Environmental Chemistry at the University of California, Davis. His graduate research at UC Davis studies the impacts of fire on aquatic ecosystems. His internship project at the CDPH Air Quality Section focuses on the metals analysis of air monitoring filters collected during the Eaton and Palisades Fires.   

Tommy Nguyen​, B.S., Ph.D. Candidate

Tommy Nguyen is a research fellow with the California Department of Public Health through the Public Health Laboratory Fellowship Program: an APHL-CDC Initiative. He earned his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of the Pacific and is a PhD student in Analytical Chemistry at the University of the Pacific. He has high levels of experience with Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) and Pyrolysis-Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (Py-GCMS). His fellowship project at CDPH will focus on microplastics in tires and road wear via Py-GCMS.

Charu Raihan

Hemakshat Sharma is a research fellow with the California Department of Public Health through the Public Health Laboratory Fellowship Program: an APHL-CDC Initiative. He earned his Master of Public Health degree in epidemiology and biostatistics from the University of California, Berkeley. He also holds a Bachelor of Art degree in molecular and cell biology and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Health from UC Berkeley. His research areas include epigenetic factors, occupational hazards, and survival analysis for sub-populations of breast cancer. He is currently working on projects related to indoor air pollutants.

Alex Shing, B.A.

Alex Shing is an intern with the California Department of Public Health. He is a master’s student in Environmental Health Sciences at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. He holds a B.A. in Environmental Biology and minored in Global Health and the Environment at Washington University in St. Louis. His internship project at the CDPH Air Quality Section focuses on the VOC/PAH analysis and passive air sampling method development.

Karla Vargas, M.P.H. 

Karla Vargas is a research fellow with the California Department of Public Health through the Public Health Laboratory Fellowship Program : an APHL-CDC Initiative . She has a Master of Public Health degree from the University of California, Berkeley with an emphasis in epidemiology, biostatistics, and data science. Her research interests focus on environmental health, predictive modeling, infectious diseases, and public health history. She has a strong passion for creating visualizations that disseminate public health communications to communities. Karla has worked in COVID-19 disease surveillance, vaccine quality assurance, and artificial intelligence research for glaucoma detection.

Jeff Wagner, Ph.D.

Jeff Wagner is a research scientist and subject matter expert on airborne particulate matter (PM) sampling, analysis, and exposure assessment study design. He holds a PhD in Environmental Sciences and Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health, an MS in Environmental Engineering in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), a BS in Engineering Physics from UIUC, and an AB in philosophy from UIUC. Dr. Wagner’s applied public health research over the past 25 years has included innovative field and laboratory studies of smoke from wildfires and biomass burning, infectious aerosol modeling, vaping and second-hand smoke, low-cost community air sampling, microscopy-based PM measurement, microplastics and flame retardants, asbestos from natural occurrences (NOA) and vehicle brake wear, and other unique PM from urban, rural, and indoor sources.

Ping Wang, Ph.D., M.Eng.

Ping Wang is a research scientist (Chemical Sciences) in the Indoor Air Quality Section of the California Department of Public Health. She holds a B. Eng. and M. Eng. in Applied Chemistry from Dalian University of Technology in China, with emphasis on Analytical Chemistry. Dr. Wang received her PhD from Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan, focused on materials characterization using various spectroscopic techniques. In addition, she had her postdoctoral training at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to investigate DNA damage and repair, with focus on combined chemical, biochemical and biological approaches to understand key questions in environmental mutagenesis and carcinogenesis. Dr. Wang has demonstrated expertise in various analytical techniques such as TD (Thermal Desorption)-GC/MS, TD-GC/FID, GC/MS, TGA (Thermal Gravimetric Analysis)-GC/MS, HPLC, ICP-OES, FT-IR, UV-vis, DSC, XRD, BET, TPR/TPD, SEM, gel electrophoresis and wet chemistry (precipitation, ion exchange, extraction, titration, and electro-coagulation). Her research interests include nanomaterial analysis/characterization, analytical chemistry, environmental chemistry and their applications in public health field. Dr. Wang is a member of the American Chemical Society (ACS), Pacific Coast Catalysis Society (PCCS), and North American Catalysis Society (NACS).

Zhong-Min Wang, Ph.D.

Zhong-Min Wang is a research scientist and an expert in air sampling, analysis, and air quality control for both indoor and outdoor air. Dr. Wang received his PhD in Environmental Engineering from University of Cincinnati and did his postdoctoral training at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and NIOSH. He also holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Zhejiang University, China, and a M.S. and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from South China University of Technology, China. His research areas include the health effects of naturally generated or human-activity generated aerosols, air sampling for both PM and VOCs, air quality control, and human exposure assessment. Dr. Wang’s expertise includes microscopy and spectroscopy analysis of particulate matter (SEM, TEM, FTIR, XRD, XRF, CPC, SMPS, etc.), air monitoring using FRM samplers, low-cost PM sensors, real-time GC-MS, and nanosized or ultrafine particle characterization.

Youngbo Won, Ph.D.

Youngbo Won, Ph.D., is a research scientist in the Air Quality Section, with a focus on air quality modeling through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and multizone modeling techniques. He earned his Bachelor of Architecture from Kwangwoon University, South Korea, a Master’s of Engineering in Civil Engineering from Purdue University, and a Ph.D. in Architectural Engineering from Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Won’s research centers on understanding and controlling indoor pollutant sources, assessing exposure risks, and optimizing ventilation strategies to enhance health outcomes in built environments. His work includes investigating the chemical reactions of contaminants and evaluating physical parameters to reduce exposure, particularly in sensitive settings such as schools, senior care facilities, and homeless shelters.

Flavia Wong, B.A.

Flavia Wong is a research scientist (Chemical Sciences) with the Indoor Air Quality Section of the California Department of Public Health. She holds a B.A. in Biochemistry from California State University, Hayward, (renamed as East Bay). Flavia has extensive experience working with various sample matrices and analyzing for different types of pollutants in the environment. She is familiar with various analytical techniques such as TD (Thermal Desorption)-GC/MS, GC/MS, HPLC, GC, ICP-OES, ICP-MS, AA, IC, UV-Visible and Wet Chemistry. She has been involved in method development and sample analysis for many case investigations and projects for Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention. She is currently working on projects and studies dealing with indoor air pollutants. ​​