A leading epidemiologist and researcher on environmental health and chronic disease, Devra Lee Davis, PhD, is a visiting professor at Carnegie Mellon University.
President Clinton appointed Davis to the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, an independent executive branch agency that investigates, prevents, and mitigates chemical accidents. As the former senior advisor to the assistant secretary for health in the Department of Health and Human Services, Davis has counseled leading officials in the United States, United Nations, World Health Organization, and World Bank. She was a scholar in residence and executive director of the board on environmental studies and toxicology at the U.S. National Research Council of the National Academy of Science.
Davis holds a bachelor of science degree in physiological psychology and a master's degree in sociology from the University of Pittsburgh. She completed a doctorate in science studies at the University of Chicago and a master's in public health in epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of more than 160 publications, in books and journals ranging from Scientific American to The Journal of the American Medical Association.
Davis founded the International Breast Cancer Prevention Collaborative Research Group, an organization dedicated to exploring the causes of breast cancer. She currently serves on the board of the Breast Cancer Fund and the Mickey Leland National Urban Air Toxics Research Center, the Climate Institute, and the Coalition of Organizations on the Environment and Jewish Life. She is a member of the American Colleges of Toxicology and of Epidemiology.