Departmental Affiliations
Center & Institute Affiliations
Megan Latshaw, PhD ’05, MHS ’01, translates environmental health science to policy and practice, with a focus on designing communities where the healthy choice is the easy choice.
Contact Info
Research Interests
environmental health; environmental justice; built environment; designing healthy communities; transportation; climate change; drinking water access; sanitation; energy access; policy; practice; biomonitoring; public health laboratories; communications; Masters degree programs
Additional Links
Experiences & Accomplishments
Megan Weil Latshaw works to improve health through changes in our environment. Her efforts focus on making science useful for:
• Lawmakers
• Those working in public health or environmental agencies
• The public
Examples of Dr. Weil Latshaw’s efforts include co-drafting a transit equity report that led to changes in policy at both the state & national levels, creating the State Environmental Health Directors group, and providing a vision and groundwork for the National Biomonitoring Network. Current efforts focus on improving drinking water & sanitation both in Maryland & Sierra Leone, and re-imagining the environmental health system in the US.
With a doctorate in Environmental Health Sciences from Johns Hopkins, Dr. Weil Latshaw rejoined their faculty after working for almost 15 years in the non-profit world. She serves the Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health as co-Director for Education and on the Steering Committee Member for the Environmental Challenges focus area of the Bloomberg American Health Initiative. Dr. Weil Latshaw co-lead the development of JHU’s new Climate Action and Sustainability. She also serves as Director of eight Master’s Degree Programs and teaches at both the undergraduate & graduate levels. Her massive open online course on Chemicals & Health has enrolled over 100,000 students from all over the world.
At the American Public Health Association, Dr. Weil Latshaw served as Chair of the Intersectional Council (with an ex officio seat on the Executive Board), Chair of the Environment Section, and a Governing Councilor (among other roles). She has participated on more dozens of committees, presented at almost more than two dozen meetings and co-authored a dozen peer-reviewed articles (the first of which was published in JAMA).
Honors & Awards
- JHSPH Faculty Award for Excellence in Baltimore Public Health Practice (2022)
- Excellence in Service Learning – SOURCE faculty award (2021)
- Green Blue Jay awardee - for incorporating sustainability into the classroom (2019)
- Johns Hopkins University SOURCE Service-Learning fellow (2018)
- APHA’s Environment Section Distinguished Service Award Winner (2018)
- One of 20 “Pioneers under 40 in Environmental Public Health” - Collaborative on Health and the Environment (2017)
- White House Fellowship - Regional Finalist (2007)
Select Publications
Spending a good deal of my career in the non-profit arena, most of my publications have been in the gray literature.
Latshaw MW, Degeberg R, Patel SS, Rhodes B, King E, Chaudhuri S, Nassif J. Advancing Environmental Health Surveillance in the US Through a National Human Biomonitoring Network. Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2016 Sep 17.
Latshaw MW, Mangal C, Barkey A, McNamara D, Kim D, Pierson JB. Public Health Laboratories and Radiological Readiness. Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2011;5 213-217.
Latshaw, MW. Green Report: What Your Environmental Laboratory Can Do for You. Environmental Council of the States: May 2011. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304538005_What_Your_Environmental_Laboratory_Can_Do_For_You
Latshaw, MW and B Schwartz. Lead. The Encyclopedia of Quantitative Risk Assessment. John Wiley & Sons. September 2008.
Weil M, Bressler J, Parsons P, Bolla K, Glass T, Schwartz B. Blood mercury levels and neurobehavioral function. JAMA. 2005;293:1875-1882.