Eric Coker, PhD
Clinical Assistant Professor
Office: HPNP 4159
Email: eric.coker@phhp.ufl.edu
Phone: 352-273-6162
Areas of Expertise
Exposure Science
Emerging Environmental Hazards
Global Environmental Change
About Dr. Eric Coker
Eric S. Coker, MS, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental and Global Health. He received a B.S. in Environmental Health Science from the University of Washington in 2006, an MS in Environmental and Occupational Health Exposure Science from the University of Washington in 2009, an MS in Global Health Sciences from the University of California, San Francisco in 2011, and a Ph.D. in Public Health from Oregon State University in 2016. After his Ph.D. work, Dr. Coker spent one year as an Environmental Epidemiologist at the New Mexico Department of Health, and two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley in Global Health and Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology. Dr. Coker joined the Department of Environmental and Global Health at the University of Florida as an Assistant Professor in the summer of 2018.
Dr. Coker’s research interests is at the intersection of social determinants of health, population susceptibility, and environmental chemical exposures, and investigating how these factors combine to cause health effects and drive health disparities in maternal and child health. He is particularly interested in studying populations in urban environments; where numerous social and health inequalities coexist and where people are simultaneously exposed to multiple environmental stressors throughout the life-course. Dr. Coker brings together his expertise in epidemiology, environmental health and exposure science, advanced biostatistical methods, and spatial and field epidemiology to pursue environmental epidemiology studies domestically in the U.S. and internationally (e.g., East Africa). His research has focused on the health and developmental effects from prenatal exposure to air pollution mixtures and chemical pesticide mixtures, as well as joint exposure to the built environment, social deprivation, and air pollution.
Current Research Interests
- Health effects of indoor and outdoor air pollution exposure
- Effects of outdoor air pollution on adverse birth outcomes (e.g., low birth weight and preterm birth)
- Effects of indoor and outdoor air pollution on respiratory health (e.g., asthma, tuberculosis)
- Development of air pollution exposure models for epidemiology studies
- Environmental health effects due to climate change
- Interaction between ambient heat and air pollution on respiratory health outcomes
- Epidemiology of the exposome
- Air pollution mixtures exposure and adverse birth outcomes
- Neurodevelopment and child growth effects from multiple chemical pesticide exposures and other endocrine disrupting compounds
- Environmental Justice and health disparities
- Community-based participatory research in environmental health
- Susceptibility to air pollution health effects related to individual-level and area-level social and built environment factors
- Urban slums and environmental health
Education
- Ph.D., Public Health, Oregon State University 2016
- M.S., Global Health Science, University of California, San Francisco 2011
- M.S., Environmental and Occupational Exposure Science, University of Washington 2009
- B.S. Environmental Health Science, University of Washington 2006
Recent Publications
- Coker, E. S., Gunier, R., Huen, K., Holland, N., & Eskenazi, B. (2018). DNA methylation and socioeconomic status in a Mexican-American birth cohort. Clinical Epigenetics,10(1).
- Hoover, J. H., Coker, E., Barney, Y., Shuey, C., & Lewis, J. (2018). Spacial clustering of metal and metalloid mixtures in unregulated water sources on the Navajo Nation – Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, USA. ScienceDirect,633, 1667-1678.
- Coker, E., Chevrier, J., Rauch, S., Bradman, A., Obida, M., Crause, M., . . . Eskenazi, B. (2018). Association between prenatal exposure to multiple insecticides and child body weight and body composition in the VHEMBE South African birth cohort. ScienceDirect, 113, 122-132.
- Coker, E., & Kizito, S. (2018). A Narrative Review on the Human Health Effects of Ambient Air Pollution in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Urgent Need for Health Effects Studies. Int J Environ Res Public Health.
- Coker, E., Liverani, S., Ghosh, J. K., Jerrett, M., Beckerman, B., Li, A., . . . Molitor, J. (2016, May). Multi-pollutant exposure profiles associated with term low birth weight in Los Angeles County, Environmen Int