Lara is interested in the relationship between social inequalities and the environment, including how environmental and social stressors interact to impact health. Her work seeks to better understand the disproportionate burden of pollutants and climate change risk faced by low income communities of color in the U.S., and to develop tools to help policy-makers address persistent inequities in environmental exposure and risk. She is involved in several initiatives to promote community-based participatory research on campus with the goal of better leveraging science in the pursuit of social justice. Lara holds an MPH in Epidemiology, and a MA ’10 and PhD ’15 in ERG.
Publications
- The Racial/Ethnic Distribution of Heat Risk–Related Land Cover in Relation to Residential Segregation
- Methodological Considerations in Screening for Cumulative Environmental Health Impacts: Lessons Learned from a Pilot Study in California
- The Haves, the Have-nots, and the Health of Everyone: The Relationship between Social Inequality and Environmental Quality (forthcoming in the Annual Review of Public Health)
- Racial/ethnic disparities in cumulative environmental health impacts in California: evidence from a state-wide environmental justice screening tool (CalEnviroScreen 1.1) (Under review, American Journal of Public Health)
- Environmental chemicals in the blood of pregnant women and their newborns from San Francisco” (Under review, Environmental Health Perspectives)
- Contributing author, IPCC 5th Assessment Report, WG II Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability