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Lara Cushing

Lara Cushing photo
Assistant Professor

Departments

DepartmentsType of Faculty
Environmental Health SciencesFull Time
Contact Information
Email: 
lcushing@ucla.edu

UCLA Fielding School of Public Health
650 Charles E. Young Drive South
56-070 CHS, Los Angeles, CA 90095

 

Lara Cushing’s research focuses on social inequalities in exposure to environmental hazards, and race and class determinants of environmental health disparities. Her work has investigated questions of environmental justice in the context of hazardous industrial facilities, prenatal exposures to harmful man-made chemicals, urban greenspace, oil and gas drilling, and global climate change. Dr. Cushing holds a M.P.H. in Epidemiology and a B.S. in Molecular Environmental Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. She received her PhD from the Energy & Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley in 2015. She is an Environmental Fellow of the Robert & Patricia Switzer Foundation and JPB Environmental Health Fellow through the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. 

Education: 
BS, Molecular Environmental Biology, University of California, Berkeley
MPH, Epidemiology, University of California, Berkeley
PhD, Energy & Resources Group, University of California, Berkeley
Selected Publications: 
  • Franklin M., K. Chau, L. Cushing, Jill Johnston “Characterizing Flaring from Unconventional Oil and Gas Operations in South Texas Using Satellite Observations” Environmental Science & Technology (2019), doi 10.1021/acs.est.8b0355
  • Cushing L., Blaustein-Rejto D., Wander M., Pastor M., Sadd J., Zhu A., Morello-Frosch R. “Carbon trading, co-pollutants, and environmental equity: Evidence from California’s cap-and-trade program (2011–2015)” PLOS Medicine (2018) 15(7): e1002604, doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002604
  • Casey, J.A., P. James, L. Cushing, B.M. Jesdale, R. Morello-Frosch, “Race, Ethnicity, Income Concentration and 10-Year Change in Urban Greenness in the United States” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2017) 14 (12) 1546-1561, doi:10.3390/ijerph14121546
  • Morello-Frosch, R., L. Cushing, B.M. Jesdale, J. Schwartz, W. Guo, T. Guo, M. Wang, S. Harwani, S.S. Petropoulou, W. Duong, J.S. Park, M. Petreas, R. Gajek, J. Alvaran, J. She, R. Das and T.J. Woodruff, “Environmental Chemicals in an Urban Population of Pregnant Women and their Newborns from San Francisco” Environmental Science & Technology (2016) 50 (22): 12464–12472, doi: 10.1021/acs.est.6b03492
  • Cushing, L.., R. Morello-Frosch, M. Wander and M. Pastor, “The Haves, the Have-nots, and the Health of Everyone: The Relationship between Social Inequality and Environmental Quality”, Annual Review of Public Health (2015), 18(36): 193-209, doi: 10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031914-122646
  • Cushing, L., J. Faust, L. August, R. Cendak, W. Wieland and G. Alexeeff, “Racial/ethnic disparities in cumulative environmental health impacts in California: evidence from a state-wide environmental justice screening tool (CalEnviroScreen 1.1)” American Journal of Public Health (2015) 105(11): 2341-2348, doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2015.302643
  • Jesdale, B., R. Morello-Frosch and L. Cushing, “The Racial/Ethnic Distribution of Heat Risk–Related Land Cover in Relation to Residential Segregation”, Environmental Health Perspectives (2013), 121(7):811-817, doi:10.1289/ehp.1205919
Links: 
Complete List of Publications | Google Scholar