Andrea Hricko MPH

PSR-LA is proud to present Andrea Hricko with the Environmental Health Award for courageous leadership in enhancing understanding of toxic air contaminants and the role of global trade on health.

Andrea Hricko is Professor of Clinical Preventive Medicine and Director of Community Outreach and Engagement (COEP) for the NIEHS-supported Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center.

She has directed the COEP since 1997, previously serving for three years as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). She has written for Environmental Health Perspectives and has produced documentary films, handbooks, and curricula on both occupational and environmental health.

In 1979, Hricko and Ken Light created the film Working for Your Life for the Labor Occupational Health Program, which explored the health and safety conditions of America’s working women by examining the hazards and demands they face in their workplaces. Filmed in over 40 workplaces, the film highlighted occupations that are both traditional ones for women (such as clerical and hospital workers) and jobs into which women were just beginning to move (such as mining).

Hricko has a Masters of Public Health degree from the University of North Carolina and serves on numerous local, state and federal task forces on goods movement issues. She is the recipient of several awards, including the Clean Air Award for Environmental Stewardship from the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the Clean Air Award for translating scientific research findings on air pollution and health in ways that are understandable to the public from the Coalition for Clean Air, the Academic Angel Award by Coalition for a Safe Environment, the Statewide Leadership Award by the American Lung Association of California, and the 25th Anniversary Award for Community Service in Environmental Health by the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice.

Her interests include translating research findings into public health and policy initiatives, developing community-university partnerships on environmental health, informing policymakers and the public about the effects of air pollution and other environmental exposures on human health, and empowering community-based organizations to educate their communities and local policymakers about these issues.

Ms. Hricko is a leader in the efforts to make health a priority in the Los Angeles/Long Beach ports expansion debate. She is nationally known for her work on inserting health into transportation decision-making. She served on the U.S. EPA National Environmental Justice Committee’s Working Group on Ports and Goods Movement and currently serves on the National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council to the NIEHS.