Associate Professor in Epidemiology at the University of Michigan
About
Alexis J. Handal is an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan (U-M). Prior to joining U-M, she was on faculty at the University of New Mexico for 11 years. She received a BA in biochemistry and MCD biology from the University of Colorado-Boulder, and an MPH and PhD in epidemiology from the University of Michigan, where she was a Rackham merit fellow, a Fulbright student fellow, and a doctoral fellow in the Center for Research. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at NICHD.
Current Work:
Dr. Handal's research interests include environmental and occupational epidemiology, reproductive epidemiology, and child health and development examined within a social/political/economic context and in global settings. Her research focuses on populations who are traditionally underrepresented in research, including Latinx/a/o and Indigenous populations in the US and Latin America, and those who are most exposed to hazardous work conditions and environmental toxins such as farm-workers, with a particular focus on women and children. Her community-engaged research approach uses a health equity lens focusing on the interconnection between occupational stress, toxic exposures and difficult social environments, in the context of precarious employment, on maternal health and child development. Dr. Handal's research interests also include examining the health impact of worker's rights, including an examination of worker protection legislation and the impact on pregnant employees, and the impact of occupational stress and gender discrimination on maternal and child health.
Dr. Handal is recognized nationally and in Latin America for her research on the impact of export-led flower production on women and their families. Her current NIH-funded research (R011ES026603) focuses on the impact of industry-related exposures (chemical, psychosocial, structural) among Ecuadorian female flower workers and on child health and development, as well as the impact of this industry on surrounding communities.
She is also the principal investigator of the Michigan Farmworkers Project. The goal of this community-engaged study is to examine the occupational and environmental health exposures in migrant and seasonal farmworkers in Michigan and related this understanding to broader social determinants such as labor exploitation and forced labor.
Dr. Handal is a co-investigator on a NIH-funded study testing an ecological/empowerment approach to reducing mental health disparities among immigrant Latinx/a/o youth and their families in New Mexico by examining the effectiveness of a community-based advocacy, learning, and social support intervention (Immigrant Well-being Project) that addresses social determinants of mental health. That project is part of the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities-funded (U54 MD004811-06) Transdisciplinary Research, Equity and Engagement Center for Advancing Behavioral Health (TREE Center) which studies how social determinants, including historical trauma, adverse childhood experiences, and the combined effects of poverty and discrimination affect behavioral health in marginalized populations.
Research Area Keyword(s):
Social epidemiology, health equity, MCH, environmental exposures, occupational health
