Mendola named member-fellow of American Epidemiological Society

Pauline Mendola, chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health (EEH), School of Public Health and Health Professions, has been selected a member-fellow of the American Epidemiological Society (AES).

The AES is a select honorary society dedicated to epidemiology and a scientific forum for senior epidemiologists. It is the oldest epidemiology organization in the United States.

Mendola, who earned her PhD from UB in 1994, is a leading epidemiologist in the field of perinatal and reproductive epidemiology. Her work regarding the intersection of environmental and reproductive health has had lasting impact on health policy within the United States and internationally.

AES member-fellows are selected through a process of nomination and evaluation based on the quality and impact of their epidemiologic accomplishments and contributions; academic activities, such as teaching and mentoring; and other aspects of their professional work, including administrative leadership and community service.

Mendola’s career has taken her from UB as an assistant professor to the Environmental Protection Agency as a health scientist in epidemiology. She became a branch chief in 2005, and in 2007, was named branch chief in the National Center for Health Statistics in the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Infant, Child and Women’s Health Statistics Branch.

In 2011, she moved to the Intramural Research Program of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), Division of Intramural Population Health Research, Epidemiology Branch. In 2018, she was promoted to senior investigator there, a tenured position. She returned to UB in 2020 as professor and chair of EEH.

Other accomplishments include

• Research: Mendola’s interdisciplinary research focuses on the epidemiology of environmental exposures in reproductive and perinatal health. Her work has implications for policy development, environmental regulation and population health. She has a record of intramural research funding, having designed and led two major NICHD research initiatives.
• Scholarship: Mendola has published more than 180 papers in such journals as The Journal of the American Medical Association, Fertility and Sterility, Hypertension, Epidemiology and The American Journal of Epidemiology.
• Leadership: Mendola has served as the treasurer and president of the Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiologic Research; president of the American College of Epidemiology; and chair of the Environment and Reproduction Special Interest Group for the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. She has also served on the editorial board of Epidemiology and was an associate editor of Fertility and Sterility from 2011-21.
• Teaching and mentoring: Mendola has received mentoring awards from the American College of Epidemiology and from the Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiologic Research. Other recognition of her work includes the President’s Award from the Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology and a collaboration award from NICHD.