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 public service. 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’m deeply thankful to all who partnered with, supported, mentored, and inspired me.
I feel proud of the breadth and depth of the >70 technical publications (journal articles, book chapters, guidance documents, and reports) I led and co-authored on a wide array of human exposure topics that advanced science and informed decisions to protect public health. In my roles as a Senior Research Physical Scientist and Research Environmental Engineer, I pioneered exposure science and decision-support tools for technical assistance and environmental regulatory support. Together with teams of dedicated colleagues and collaborators within and outside the Agency, I developed, applied, and provided national-scale exposure simulation models, multi-scale geospatial mapping approaches, data analyses for children’s health risk assessments, and web-based community tools for informing decisions to improve environmental public health at multiple geographic scales.
I earned a PhD and MS from Stanford University (Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering and Science; 1997 and 1993) and a BS from Princeton University (Civil Engineering, Water Resources; 1989). Prior to graduate school and EPA, I worked 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).
EPA Biosketch
EPA Career Overview
Presidential Rank Award Nomination
EPA Science Matters Interview
Valerie Zartarian 