Rhona gets PhD in Environmental Health

Rhona, a single mother of three, was born in Arima 1959, and attended Arima Girls’ Government School and North Eastern College in Sangre Grande, before migrating to the United States.

In 1984, she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from MIT, Boston, after which she worked briefly at the Environmental Protection Agency in Boston, Massachusetts.

She enrolled at Tufts University in 1986 to continue her studies and gained her Master’s degree in Environmental Policy in 1992. She got married and started a family during this period.

Moving onward to Harvard University, Rhona earned her Master’s in Public Health, specialising in Industrial Hygiene. In June 2006 she obtained her doctoral degree in Environmental Health.

Her resources focused on pesticide use and health effects and resulted in three papers that will be submitted for publication soon. The first paper provided data on prevalence and concentrations of pesticides in public housing, in addition to testing the validity of the sampling methods used to collect vacuum dust and floor wipes.

The second paper evaluated the utility of using information obtained from questionnaires and home inspections — low cost screening tools — to identify high risk households. The third paper evaluated the effectiveness of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) on reductions in pesticide concentrations as well as other indicators including pest population, housekeeping practices and use of pesticides.

At present Dr Julien is working on a proposal to assess the impact of air pollution from auto body shops on adjacent neighbourhoods and the effectiveness of technologies in reducing those emissions.