School of Public Health

Education

• Carnegie Mellon University, Ph.D., Engineering and Public Policy, 2007

• Carnegie Mellon University, Ph.D., Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2007

• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, M.S., Environmental Science in Civil Engineering, 1990

• Bryn Mawr College, B.A., Mathematics, 1986

Background

Position/Grant/Award/etc.

• Professor, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Feb. 1-July 31, 2019
• Associate Professor, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2014-Jan. 31, 2019
• Assistant Professor, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Jul. 1 2007-December 31, 2013
• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, 2003-2006
• Senior Engineer, RAND Corp., 2003-2007
• Associate Director, Water Science and Technology Board, National Research Council, 1997-1999
• Research Associate, Staff Officer, and Senior Staff Officer, Water Science and Technology Board, National Research Council, 1990-1996

Courses Currently/Recently Taught

• Environmental Risk Assessment
• Environmental Decision Analysis
• Water-Health Research

Research Interests

News stories of health risks from toxic waste spills, polluted water supplies, hazy air, contaminated foods, and other environmental problems abound. Sorting through the headlines to figure out what environmental risks really might be important to your health or your community’s health and figuring out how to decrease those risks can seem an insurmountable task. My research seeks to illuminate what individuals, communities, and policymakers can do to make the biggest and most lasting improvements in public health by improving the quality of our environment.

My students and I parse complicated environmental problems into manageable elements that can be modeled mathematically and re-integrated to inform environmental and public health policy decisions. We have worked across the globe, from the US to the United Arab Emirates. Our work examines environmental risks to health at the scale of communities, building models that integrate knowledge of how pollutants are distributed through communities, how people become exposed to pollutants and other environmental risks factors, and how these exposures, in turn, increase risks of illness or premature death. Our main tools are drawn from applied mathematics and statistics, but we also conduct field research. My students have collected and analyzed water and air samples, administered surveys, and conducted focus group interviews, in order to develop the knowledge needed to understand environmental risks to public health and advance policies to reduce those risks. Given an important environmental policy question, we find the tools needed to analyze potential solutions.

You may find more information at my lab website.

Selected Publications

Articles

Redmon, J. H., K. E. Levine, A. M. Aceituno, K. Litzenberger, and J. MacDonald Gibson. 2020. Lead in drinking water at North Carolina childcare centers: Piloting a citizen science-based testing strategy. Environmental Research (in press). 10.1016/j.envres.2020.109126

Clonch, A. C., M. Fisher, and J. MacDonald Gibson. 2019. Water infrastructure and childhood blood lead levels: Characterizing the effects of exclusion from municipal services in Wake County (NC, USA). International Journal of Child Health and Human Development 12(4):(in press).

Stillo, F., W. Bruine de Bruin, C. Zimmer, and J. MacDonald Gibson. 2019. Well water testing in African American communities without municipal infrastructure: Beliefs driving decisions. Science of the Total Environment 686(10 October):1220-1228. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.05.317.

Stillo, F., and J. MacDonald Gibson. 2018. Racial disparities in access to municipal water supplies in the American South: Impacts on children’s health. International Public Health Journal 10(3):309-323.

Leker, H., and J. MacDonald Gibson. 2018. Relationship between race and community water and sewer service in North Carolina, USA. PLoS ONE 13(3):e0193225 (pp. 1-19). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0193225.

DeFelice, N. B., H. G. Leker, and J. MacDonald Gibson*. 2017. Annual cancer risks from chemicals in North Carolina community water systems. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal 23(5):974-991. DOI: 10.1080/10807039.2017.1292842.

MacDonald Gibson, J., and K. J. Pieper. 2017. Strategies to improve private well water quality: A North Carolina perspective. Environmental Health Perspectives 125(7):07600.1-07600.9. DOI: 10.1289/EHP890.

Stillo, F., and J. MacDonald Gibson*. 2017. Exposure to contaminated drinking water and health disparities in North Carolina. American Journal of Public Health 107(1):180-185. DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2016.303482.

DeFelice, N., J. Johnston, and J. MacDonald Gibson*. 2016. Reducing emergency department visits for acute gastrointestinal illnesses in North Carolina (USA) by extending community water service. Environmental Health Perspectives 54(10):1583-1591. DOI: 10.1289/EHP160.

Zabinski, J. W., G. Garcia-Vargas, M. Rubio-Andrade, R. C. Fry, and J. MacDonald Gibson*. 2016. Advancing dose-response assessment methods for environmental regulatory impact analysis: a Bayesian belief network approach applied to inorganic arsenic. Environmental Science & Technology Letters 3(5):200-204.

MacDonald Gibson, J., D. Rodriguez, T. Dennerlein, J. Mead, T. Hasch, G. Meacci, and S. Levin. 2015. Predicting urban design effects on physical activity and public health: a case study. Health and Place 35(September):79-84. DOI: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2015.07.005.

MacDonald Gibson, J., N. DeFelice, D. Sebastian, and H. Leker. 2014. Racial disparities in access to community water supply service in Wake County, North Carolina. Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research 3(3): article 6. DOI: 10.13023/FPHSSR.0303.06.

Books

MacDonald Gibson, J., A. Brammer, C. Davidson, T. Folley, F. Launay, and J. Thomsen, eds. 2013. Environmental Burden of Disease Assessment: A Case Study in the United Arab Emirates. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. ISBN 978-97-007-5924-4 (hard copy), 978-94-007-5925-1 (eBook). DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-5925.1. 521 pp. Available: http://www.amazon.com/Environmental-Disease-Assessment-Science-Technology/dp/940075924X