Erika Garcia, PhD, MPH

Dr. Erika Garcia is an Associate Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Her research examines the role of ambient environmental exposures in the development of human disease with the goal of providing evidence for potential public health policies and interventions to reduce morbidity and mortality. She focuses on the effects of early-life air pollution exposure on respiratory health outcomes as well as the impacts of climate change related environmental exposures on morbidity and mortality. She leads the NIH-funded “Electric Vehicle Adoption in California” (EVAC) Study which examines inequities in electric vehicle adoption and in the observed local air quality and respiratory health co-benefits of electric vehicle adoption, using a mixed method design that melds community-engaged research with traditional epidemiological data analyses. Additionally, she co-leads the USC CLIMA Center’s Research Project 1 “The role of vulnerability and adaptation on the effects of co-occurring heat, air pollution, and wildfire on heart failure hospitalizations,” which aims to inform future action-oriented policies, programs, and targeted interventions to mitigate extreme weather health effects, especially among the most vulnerable. Dr. Garcia received a PhD and MPH in Environmental Health Sciences from UC Berkeley.

• University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA — PhD — 05/2017 — Environmental Health Sciences
• University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA — MPH — 05/2011 — Environmental Health Sciences

• CLIMAte-related Exposures, Adaptation, and Health Equity (CLIMA) Center
  NIH · P20HL176204 · Sep 17, 2024 – Aug 31, 2027 · Role: Co-Investigator
• Electric Vehicle Adoption in California: Predictors, Impacts on Local Air Quality and Respiratory Health, and Inequities
  NIH · R01ES035137 · Apr 20, 2023 – Jan 31, 2028 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Environmental Exposures, Host Factors and Human Disease
  NIH · P30ES007048 · Apr 1, 1996 – Apr 30, 2031 · Role: Co-Investigator

• environmental epidemiology
• climate change
• causal inference
• air pollution
• heat
• wildfire smoke
• asthma
• respiratory health
• lung function
• childhood obesity

• Childhood air pollution directly linked to adult lung health, study says (7/26/2024)
• Electric vehicles may improve a community’s health (9/27/2023)
• More EVs, less air pollution: USC study shows real promise (2/14/2023)
• It doesn’t take that many electric cars to improve public health (2/9/2023)
• Electric vehicles have a positive impact on respiratory health (2/3/2023)
• Why Extreme Heat Plus Pollution Is a Deadly Combination (7/28/2022)
• The Phoenix summer heat is dangerous. The air pollution is making it worse (7/14/2022)
• When Heat Waves Meet Air Pollution, Death Risks Rise Substantially (7/13/2022)
• How the Virus Unraveled Hispanic American Families (6/14/2021)
• Working-age Latino immigrants 11 times more likely to die from COVID, study shows (4/14/2021)
• Death Stalks Hispanic Workers: They're 11 Times More Likely To Die Of COVID-19 (04/05/2021)
• COVID-19 Deaths 11 Times Higher Among Working-Age Latino Immigrants, USC Study Says (04/05/2021)
• Working age Hispanic immigrants were 11 times more likely to die of Covid in California, study says (04/05/2021)
• How much has California's war on air pollution reduced asthma rates? (07/22/2019)
• Asthma cases dropped when air pollution declined (06/18/2019)
• Decreased exposure to air pollutants in California reduced asthma incidence in children (06/03/2019)
• When LA's Air Got Better, Kids' Asthma Cases Dropped (05/21/2019)
• Cleaner Air Linked to Lower Asthma Rates in Kids (5/21/2019)

• Peters, Anne
• Chen, Jiu-Chiuan
• McConnell, Rob
• Habre, Rima
• Eckel, Sandrah
• Farzan, Shohreh