Valerie G. Zartarian, PhD
With mixed emotions I retired 12/31/25 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) after more than 27 years of federal service and a 30-year scientific career. It was an honor to serve in EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) and contribute to the Agency’s mission to protect public health and the environment. I worked in EPA ORD’s National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) from 1998-2019 and the Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment (CPHEA) from 2019-2025. I am deeply thankful to all who collaborated with, mentored, and inspired me.
I’m proud of the breadth and depth of the body of published scientific work that I led and co-authored on a wide array of human exposure topics that have advanced science and informed decisions to protect public health, from local to international scales. These include 60 peer-reviewed journal articles (with >2700 citations and >13,300 reads) plus book chapters, guidance documents, and reports that I hope will continue to be useful in practice. In my EPA roles as a Senior Research Physical Scientist and Research Environmental Engineer, I pioneered exposure science methods, models, and tools for technical assistance and regulatory support. Together with dedicated colleagues and collaborators within and outside the Agency, I developed, applied, and provided human exposure simulation models; geospatial mapping approaches; data analyses for children’s health risk assessments; and web-based decision-support tools for communities and tribes.
Prior to graduate school and joining the EPA, I worked for several years as an environmental engineering consultant with Camp, Dresser, & McKee, Inc. in Boston (1989-1991), Anderson-Nichols in Boston (summer 1988), and Watson-Hawksley in High Wycombe, England (summer 1987). In 1983 and 1984 I attended the Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics (HCSSiM) and graduated as valedictorian of Canton High School, MA in 1985. I hold a PhD and MS from Stanford University (Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering and Science, with a minor in Statistics; 1997 and 1993) and a BS from Princeton University (Civil Engineering, Water Resources; 1989).
2025 EPA Biosketch
2024 Presidential Rank Award Nomination
2021 EPA Science Matters Interview
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