Assistant Professor of Family Medicine, The College, and Committee on Environment, Geography and Urbanization (CEGU)
laura.mcguinn@bsd.uchicago.edu↗

Laura McGuinn is an environmental epidemiologist who studies the health effects of urban chemical and non-chemical stressors with a particular focus on vulnerable populations, windows of susceptibility, and novel exposure assessment approaches. Her primary research interests include assessing the individual and joint impacts of air pollution and non-chemical stressors such as noise on physical and mental health outcomes throughout the life course; identifying critical windows of susceptibility in order to identify particularly susceptible subgroups; and elucidating stress-related biologic pathways in these environmental health associations. She is also involved in several digital mental health studies where she uses wearable devices and other mobile health technologies in population health studies. She received a BS in psychology from Loyola University Chicago, an MSc in public health with a concentration in environment and health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a PhD in epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Most recently, she was a pediatric environmental health fellow at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Awards

K99/ R00 Pathway to Independence Award, 2021–2026, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), for “Effects of Urban Chemical and Non-Chemical Stressors on Preadolescent Mental Health“