Dr. Yoshira “Yoshi” Ornelas Van Horne is an exposure scientist and environmental justice scholar. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. She is the assistant director of Agents of Change in Environmental Justice Fellowship, which trains early career scientists in science communications. She is currently a JPB Environmental Health Fellow through Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Together with dedicated collaborators she is engaging youth in the South Bronx and Northern Plains to tackle exposure inequalities.
Her research focuses on addressing unequal exposures to harmful contaminants that affect structurally marginalized communities. She is committed to building health equity through community-driven research and is passionate about research translation and communication. To this end, her work not only characterizes inequities in cumulative exposures but also supports community-driven solutions and training efforts. Dr. Ornelas Van Horne is an HSI alumna of the Environmental Health Sciences program at the University of Arizona and serves as the co-chair of the General Scientific Meetings Committee for the International Society of Exposure Science.
