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Maureen Lichtveld, M.D., M.P.H., has a 29 year career in public health and currently is professor and chair, of the department of environmental health sciences, Tulane University, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Her research interests are environmentally-induced disease, including asthmaand cancer; health disparities, environmental health policy; community-based participatoryresearch; and disaster preparedness. She holds an endowed chair in environmental policy and is associate director population sciences, Louisiana Cancer Research Consortium. In 2008, Dr. Lichtveld received the Herbert Nickens Award from the Intercultural Cancer Council for leadership in cancer health disparities and educating minority health professionals in cancer care. In 2007, she was awarded Woman of the Year by the City of New Orleans for her contributions to science and well being.

Dr. Lichtveld is the principal investigator (PI) for Head Off Environmental Asthma in Louisiana, an NIH-funded novel pediatric asthma intervention examining the relationship between exposure to Post-Katrina mold and exacerbation of childhood asthma. She is the co-PI of the NIH Gulf Coast Transdisciplinary Research Center for Community Health, a multi-institutional collaborative center engaged in disaster preparedness and community-based participatory research, emphasizing vulnerable populations.

Dr. Lichtveld is the incoming chair, Science Board, American Public Health Association. She was elected chair, Environmental and Occupational Health Council, Association of Schools of Public Health. During her 18 year career at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she provided scientific leadership for national environmental health programs including public health assessments and populations studies and was named the Environmental Health Scientist of the Year. She recently served on the planning committee and as a presenter for the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Workshop on "Assessing the Effects of the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill on Human Health".