Who We Are

Kelly K. Baker, PhD, is an associate professor of epidemiology and environmental health and director of the Center for Climate Change and Health Equity at the University at Buffalo. Her research aims to identify and scale up practical interventions that prevent community transmission of enteric and antimicrobial-resistant infections between humans, animals and the environment, with a focus on ensuring the health of young children. Her funded research includes the development and testing of rapid diagnostics; evaluation of the impact of global development strategies on enteric and antimicrobial disease control; measuring the impact of flooding and drought on rural well water safety; and assessment of how climate-driven food and water insecurity affects maternal and child health.

Shelby Yamamoto, Dr Sci Hum, is an associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health in UB's School of Public Health and Health Professions. As an environmental epidemiologist, she focuses on investigating air pollution and climate change exposure, developing and exploring ways to capture climate change and air pollution-related vulnerability, assessing mitigation and adaptive capacity, and promoting community resilience across and within populations.

Stephanie Keating Miller, MA, is the administrator for the Center for Climate Change and Health Equity. Miller comes with a strong background in the arts and has worked extensively in community outreach, education and programming. While she is new to the climate and health space, she brings her experience in community engagement and commitment to elevating community voices to her work at the center.

Ellie Madson, MPH, is the laboratory manager and project coordinator for CCCHE Director Kelly Baker. Madson is from Iowa and graduated with her MPH in occupational and environmental health from the University of Iowa. In Iowa, Ellie worked with many environmental organizations such as the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, the Nature Conservancy, and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. She has also been driven to look globally with her work. In the past few years, she has been able to conduct environmental research domestically, as well as in India, Bangladesh and Kenya. 

Gloria Aidoo-Frimpong, PhD, MPH, MA, is a public health researcher whose work centers on health equity and the intersections of social determinants, migration, and health outcomes among marginalized populations. With a background in HIV prevention among African immigrants, Aidoo-Frimpong is expanding her focus to explore how climate-related stressors influence health inequities, particularly in immigrant communities. Her interests lie in understanding the cascading effects of climate change—such as migration, displacement, and access to resources—on the social and structural factors shaping health behaviors and outcomes. By examining the interplay between environmental challenges and health disparities, she seeks to address the unique vulnerabilities faced by African immigrants navigating these intersecting challenges.

Aidoo-Frimpong’s approach is rooted in community engagement, leveraging partnerships with local organizations to ensure culturally responsive and sustainable solutions. Her research aligns with sustainable development goals aimed at reducing inequalities and fostering resilience in underserved populations. She is committed to advancing interdisciplinary research that bridges health equity and climate science, creating actionable knowledge to support vulnerable populations in adapting to global and environmental health challenges.

Riana Pryor, PhD, ATC, is an athletic trainer and exercise physiologist with expertise in the impact of extreme environments on human physiology. The goal of her research is to understand the impact of hot environments on thermoregulation and neuromuscular fatigue in active populations to create and compare intervention strategies to mitigate these negative health consequences.  Her recent project explores the impact of age, sex, and other individual characteristics on how someone thermoregulates during a simulated heat wave.  This will identify groups at greater risk of negative health consequences to specifically create tailored intervention strategies.  In a separate project, Pryor collaborates with an interdisciplinary team to determine the strategies that individuals with mobility impairment utilize during extreme hot and cold weather conditions and their perceptions of these environments.  She also investigates exertional heat illness prevention strategies such as hydration, work/rest cycles, and heat acclimation and intervention strategies such as body cooling to improve patient outcomes in geographically remote locations.  Ultimately, Pryor’s work helps shape health and safety policies for community members and active populations such as workers and the military who experience extreme environments. 

Hayden Hess, PhD, ATC, CSCS, is trained to and has research expertise in identifying and understanding the implications of, and integrative physiological responses to, environmental stress in healthy and at-risk populations. His research goals are aimed at addressing imminent challenges to individual and public health through research in environmental physiology. Specifically, his current long-term research goal is to improve personal climate resilience in adults with obesity pertaining to the consequences of obesity on developing devastating health problems within the context climate change and kidney health.

Pauline Mendola, PhD, is a tenured professor and chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health in the School of Public Health and Health Professions at the University at Buffalo.  She has held leadership positions at the US EPA and the National Center for Health Statistics as well as serving as a Senior Investigator in the NICHD Intramural Research Program. Throughout her career, her research has focused on environmental factors that impact reproductive health with a strong focus on pregnancy complications and adverse pregnancy outcomes including the long-term health risks for pregnant people who experience those complications. Her research group has conducted novel studies of the impact of the ambient environment, particularly air pollution and extreme temperature, in relation to adverse outcomes of pregnancy such as stillbirth, maternal cardiovascular events at labor/delivery, preterm birth and measures of fetal growth. Her team was among the first to identify risks for integrated measures of adverse outcomes, such as newborn admission to neonatal intensive care. As a leader in the Environment and Reproduction Scientific Interest Group of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, she has led roundtables on climate change and reproductive health as well as contributing commentary on the intergenerational impact of climate change on infertility.   

Dean S. Seneca, MPH, MCURP, serves as the CEO of Seneca Scientific Solutions+, a Public Health and Urban and Regional Planning LLC. In this position, he provides capacity building assistance for Tribal Nations, States, Regions, Cities and Territories in economic and community development that embraces the concepts of “healthy places for healthy people.”  Services provided include public health policy, program, training & science; strategic/master planning; community, economic development; grant writing; architectural site planning & building design; performance programing; health research; data collection & management; and program evaluation.  Areas of health expertise include epidemiology, chronic and infectious diseases, emergency preparedness and response, environmental health, social determinants, and global health.  Mr. Seneca holds an adjunct position at the University of Buffalo, School of Public Health and Health Professions where he instructs a class on “Indigenous Health Disparities” and is considered a national subject matter expert.  Previously, Mr. Seneca served as a Senior Health Scientist in the Partnership Support Unit within the Office for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  His main responsibilities were to build CDC’s national public health partners ability to provide greater capacity building assistance to state, tribal, local, and territorial health departments.  Mr. Seneca has over 20 years of experience in the field of infectious disease outbreaks having been a first responder to Anthrax, H1N1, Ebola, Zika and now Covid19.  Before arriving to CDC, he held the position of Tribal Planning Director for the Seneca Nation of Indians.  US Army Reserves, 3^rd Medical Command, Company Commander, 345^th Entomology Detachment, served until 2007.  Received both of his master’s degree(s) from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Alexandra Judelsohn, PhD, is an assistant professor in the UB Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Co-PI of the Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab. Her work centers on how we plan for and support differences in the city, and she pursues community-based research at the intersection of urban planning, public health, and environmental studies. She studies the institutional processes that either facilitate or hinder equitable and healthy communities in order to address the dearth of urban research on these themes. Fostering long-term relationships with community partners, Alex aims to answer questions relevant to community leaders and engage in meaningful work to improve needed support systems. Some of her current research projects examine issues of data equity, governance and representation, and environmental justice. Alex has published in numerous journals, including the Journal of the American Planning Association, Community Development, and Frontiers. She is a co-editor on a book,  Planning for Equitable Urban Agriculture in the USA: Future Directions for a new Ethic in City Building. Alex earned her PhD in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Michigan in 2023. 

Mohamed Aly Etman, PhD is an architectural researcher and educator specializing in data-driven design, environmental resilience, and the built environment's impact on human health. As the founding director of the Building Environment Visualization Lab at the University at Buffalo's School of Architecture and Planning, his work integrates computational design, environmental modeling, and socio-ecological analytics to advance climate resilience and health equity.

At the Yale Center for Ecosystems in Architecture (CEA), Mohamed developed SEVA (Socio-Ecological Visual Analytics), a tool that synthesizes built environment data, human well-being metrics, and computational tools to inform sustainable design decisions. He also led the development of IDRO, an interactive platform for drought resilience, and contributed to a knowledge graph for climate adaptation and preparedness.

His work extends to global climate and health initiatives, collaborating with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on the World Environment Situation Room (WESR) and the Ecological Living Module (ELM) to demonstrate strategies for residential construction that provide high-quality, efficient, and flexible housing while supporting sustainable development. ELM was a pilot framework to integrate environmental data and track ecosystem resilience. Previously, he contributed to the HBGDki initiative, a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation program using big data analytics to assess environmental and socio-economic factors on child health outcomes worldwide.

Holding an MArch II and PhD from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a BSc and MSc from Cairo University, Mohamed's research continues to drive evidence-based solutions for climate adaptation, food systems resilience, and public health.

Josh McClain, MUP is the Sustainability and Resiliency Planner at the UB Regional Institute and works with municipalities in Erie and Niagara Counties to develop plans and implement measures to increase climate change resilience, as well as on a region-wide planning initiative to identify key strategies for reducing regional greenhouse gas emissions.

Josh holds a Master of Urban Planning degree from the University at Buffalo, specializing in land use and environmental planning, and has professional/academic interests related to urban ecology, social infrastructure, and other modes of enhancing community and environmental resilience.

Prior to joining UBRI in 2023, Josh worked in the public health and human services fields for programs focused on reducing health disparities within Communities of Color and among People Who Use Drugs in Buffalo, NY. Previously he spent several years in rural Honduras working on sustainable agriculture and community development projects. These experiences continue to inform his work among communities in Western New York.

Nicholas B. Rajkovich, PhD is an Associate Professor and the Associate Dean for Research and Creative Practice in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University at Buffalo (UB). His work at the UB focuses on the intersection among climate impacts, climate adaptation, and equitable community development.

Nicholas recently served as the buildings sector co-chair for the New York State Climate Impacts Assessment, examining how the built environment of the Northeastern U.S. will need to adapt to climate change. He has managed several research projects through his Resilient Buildings Lab for organizations like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. With Seth Holmes of the Rochester Institute of Technology, he edited the book “Climate Adaptation and Resilience Across Scales: from Buildings to Cities” which is available from Routledge as an open access book.

Outside of research and writing, he has also supported professional organizations like the American Institute of Architects and the U.S. Green Building Council as they have incorporated adaptation and resilience into their programs and standards. He also works closely with community organizations like People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH Buffalo) to advance energy efficiency and climate justice in Western New York.

Nick is a licensed architect, has a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Michigan, a Master of Architecture from the University of Oregon, and a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University.

Bart Roberts, AICP is an urban planner and researcher who specializes in bringing together research and practice to advance projects related to sustainability, community development, and public participation. He is interim director of research and faculty engagement for the UB Regional Institute. Recently, Bart has served as UBRI’s point person for Rain Check—Buffalo Sewer Authority’s green infrastructure program, and Imagine LaSalle, the community engagement process guiding the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation’s $50 million gift to transform LaSalle Park on Buffalo’s lower west side.

Having joined UBRI in 2009, Bart has worked on a wide range of projects focusing on diverse issues at various geographic scales. In 2011, Bart led the effort to secure a $2 million grant from the Federal Partnership for Sustainable Communities to launch One Region Forward, a regional planning effort to build tools and strategies for advancing sustainable development across Erie and Niagara counties. He continues to support that program, with planning advisement, research, community engagement, and local capacity building.

More recent projects Bart has led for UBRI include: directing research for the Greater Buffalo Racial Equity’s foundational study The Racial Equity Dividend: Buffalo’s Great Opportunity; overseeing the planning process for Tonawanda Tomorrow, a federally-funded economic development program preparing the Town in wake of the NRG Huntley coal-powered plant closure; launching the NYSERDA Clean Energy Communities technical assistance program for Buffalo Niagara municipalities; and managing the public engagement for Niagara Street Now, the City of Buffalo’s streetscape and green infrastructure transformation of a 3-mile long corridor that runs parallel to the Niagara River.

Prior to joining UBRI in 2009, Bart served as the lead analyst for the management accountability program CitiStat Buffalo, where he oversaw the development and analysis of performance metrics for services delivered by the City of Buffalo. Bart holds a bachelor’s degree in urban studies from Vassar College, and a master’s in urban planning from the University at Buffalo, where he received the Dean’s Certificate and Best Professional Project Award from the department.

A born and bred Buffalonian, Bart lives in Buffalo’s Parkside neighborhood with his wife Kristin and two sons Griffin and Brady. When not tackling home improvement projects or chasing the boys around the house, Bart enjoys playing soccer and ice hockey, tailgating at New Era Field, and relaxing on the beaches of Southern Ontario.

Diana Aga, PhD, is the Henry Woodburn Professor of Chemistry and a State University of New York (SUNY) Distinguished Professor at UB, where she also serves as the Director of RENEW (Research and Education in eNergy, Environment and Water) Institute. An analytical chemist, her research involves studying the fate, transport, effects, and treatment of chemicals of emerging concern and persistent organic pollutants in the environment. She is an expert in developing trace analytical methods for organic contaminants in complex environmental matrices based on chromatography and mass spectrometry. Her research group, the Aga Lab for Environmental Research and Testing (ALERT), specializes in target and non-target analysis of contaminants in the environment, especially as to the identification of degradation products and novel forms of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as “Forever Chemicals.” She is also investigating factors that promote emergence of antibiotic resistance in the agroecosystems and municipal wastewater treatment plants, such as the exacerbating impacts of extreme weather events caused by the changing climate. Additionally, Dr. Aga evaluates the bioaccumulation and toxicity of environmental contaminants in humans, fish, and wildlife. Recipient of numerous awards and honors, Dr. Aga has received the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award; the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Fellowship; 2 Fulbright Fellowships; and, from the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, the Menzie Environmental Education Award. The preeminent professional association for chemists, the American Chemical Society (ACS), has designated her a Fellow, as has the ACS AGRO Division; in 2017, she was awarded the Jacob F. Schoellkopf Medal by the Western New York Section of the ACS.