Betty J. Dabney is a Research Associate Professor at the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health. She received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of Texas at Austin and was a post-doctoral fellow in human genetics at Baylor College of Medicine. She worked in industry for many years in environmental and occupational health, and in public health informatics. She has designed and authored large information systems in environmental health, has co-authored three books, and has obtained over $1 million in federal funding. Her interests include linking environmental public health informatics, biomonitoring, reproductive hazards, children's environmental health, and environmental justice.

Erinna Kinney is a Graduate Assistant in MIAEH.

Karen provides administrative support for both the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health. Karen has worked at the University since 1985. She is married with two boys, makes her own jewelry, is President of the Prince George's County Herb Society and loves to garden and cook.

Joanne Perodin is a Graduate Research Assistant in MIAEH.

Dr. Amir Sapkota holds a joint appointment at the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health and the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Dr. Sapkota received his PhD in Environmental Health Sciences from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and his BS in Chemistry from Clark University. He joins the growing number of faculty at UMCP after successfully completing post-doctoral work at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France.

Understanding exposures that occur among individuals and identifying markers of cellular responses that can predict the development of future diseases enables public health practitioners to identify specific subpopulations at risk, who subsequently can be targeted with proper interventions to prevent such disease occurrence. Within this framework, Dr. Sapkota's primary research interests lie in the area of exposure assessment and environmental epidemiology. He is interested in utilizing personal air measurements, as well as urinary and serum biomarkers to understand the risk of diseases associated with exposures to various air pollutants such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), in the environment and at the workplace. At UMCP, Dr. Sapkota will work on a range of topics including the inner city environment and asthma; impacts of traffic on community air pollution; and indoor air pollution from solid fuel usage in developing countries and risk of lung cancer, to name a few.

Dr. Amy R. Sapkota received a PhD in Environmental Health Sciences from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, an MPH in Environmental Epidemiology and Environmental Health Policy from the Yale School of Public Health and a BS in Biology from the University of Maryland, College Park. She completed post-doctoral fellowships at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Environmental Microbial Genomics Group within Le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Lyon, France.

Dr. Sapkota's research interests lie in the areas of microbial environmental exposure assessment and environmental epidemiology, with a focus on evaluating the complex relationships between the environment, food and water production systems, and human infectious diseases. Current research projects include: 1) evaluating the dissemination of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and resistance genes from agricultural sources into air, surface water, groundwater, soil and food products, and understanding how this may contribute to rises in antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections in humans; and 2) utilizing metagenomic methods to understand total bacterial and viral biodiversity in environmental samples including soil, food, air and other commercial products. Other interests include the environmental and human health impacts associated with the discharge of wastewater treatment effluent into the Chesapeake Bay and the dissemination of transgenes from genetically modified organisms (corn and soy plants) into groundwater and surface water sources.