Dr. Martinez is a Chicana scientist, artist, and justice advocate. An ecologist by training, Dr. Martinez is currently serving in a diplomatic position as the Environmental Justice Officer at the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). The CEC is the secretariat for the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, the treaty by which the US, Canada, and Mexico collaborate on environmental issues and preserving biodiversity. In her role at the CEC, Dr. Martinez is responsible for helping weave environmental justice into existing and new collaborative works that the commission leads across North America. Prior to joining the CEC, Dr. Martinez was the Director of Environmental Health at WE ACT for Environmental Justice, based in New York City, where she was responsible for advancing efforts to improve environmental health in communities of color and low-income communities through research, teaching, coalition-building, and advocacy.
Dr. Martinez earned her Ph.D. in Ecology & Evolution in 2015 at the University of Michigan and did her postdoctoral training at Princeton University. Before joining WE ACT, she served as an Assistant Professor at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, followed by Emory University, in the Dept. of Biology. From 2016-2023, Dr. Martinez and her lab were supported by the prestigious NIH Director’s Early Independence Award. Over the past decade, her research has focused on social and environmental justice, biological rhythms, infectious disease ecology, climate change, and maternal and infant health.
Media/Our Research In the News
Check the webinar Dr. Martinez and CEC Environmental Justice Fellow Frida Treviño hosted on the Impact of Pollution and Biodiversity Loss on Women. The video is available in English, Spanish and French (additional language options and slides available here).
Check out our new report on the challenges of addressing mercury-added skin lighteners and our recommendations to the UN Secretariat for Minamata Convention on Mercury.
Listen to Dr. Martinez discuss Beauty Justice in her recent interview with Between the Lines.
Dr. Martinez was recently interviewed by Science regarding SARS-CoV-2 seasonality.
Dr. Martinez was interviewed by the Atlantic about her work on birth seasonality.
Dr. Martinez was interviewed in Inside Climate News talking about Beauty Justice.
Dr. Martinez was interviewed in the Examination about chemical hair straighteners.
In an interview with news channel NY1, Dr. Martinez shares how air pollution disproportionately impacts communities of color, with a focus on the recent air quality alerts in New York City caused by the smoke from Canadian wildfires.
Dr. Martinez joined a team to brief lawmakers in Washington, D.C. on how the EPA should use the best available science to improve the way it evaluates chemicals for potential health risks and protects people and communities from toxic exposures. Dr. Martinez focused on the disproportionate impacts of chemical pollution on communities of color. Click the image below to read the full article.
Dr. Martinez had an interview with senior science reporter Maggie Koerth for the data journalism site FiveThirtyEight where she discussed the seasonality of infectious disease. Click the image to read the full article.
In Fall 2022, Dr. Martinez teamed up with comedian David Perdue to teach social justice by merging art and science. In her new class, Imagine A Just City, Dr. Martinez works with students to foster creative thinking to solve one of the world’s biggest problems: creating and protecting justice in society. You can read her in-depth interview in Emory News (here).
In Fall 2021, Dr. Martinez joined civil rights attorneys and other scholars as part of the NYC Mayoral Commission for Social Justice. The commission recently held a press conference at City Hall to release social justice recommendations for the new mayor. Click the image below to watch the press conference and see the report. The report covers climate change, health, the criminal legal system, housing, education, and civil rights. Dr. Martinez led the sections on climate change, health, and heat.
Dr. Martinez was elected to be the the Chair of the MIDAS Steering Committee.
“MIDAS is a global network of scientists and practitioners from academia, industry, government, and non-governmental agencies, who develop and use computational, statistical and mathematical models to improve the understanding of infectious disease dynamics as it relates to pathogenesis, transmission, effective control strategies, and forecasting.”
– MIDAS Network
Dr. Martinez worked with Terry McGovern and Chelsea Clinton to review the health threats of fracking and called for the Biden Administration to end fracking exemptions. They discuss how fracking can impact the development of the heart, reproductive system, and cardiovascular system for a fetus during pregnancy, thus:
“fracking may not only harm individuals directly exposed to it but may also have health consequences that carry over into future generations“
Click the image below to read our full article about fracking.
Dr. Martinez was part of a panel discussion for the NYC Dept. of Health on how to build COVID-19 vaccine trustworthiness and ensure an equitable COVID-19 recovery in NYC.
Dr. Martinez had an interview with Teen Vogue on what life will look like after the COVID-19 vaccine. Click the image below to read the article.
“Micaela Martinez, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, tells Teen Vogue we’ll likely need more than 75% of the U.S. population to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to reach that point, a similar estimate to one shared by Anthony Fauci, M.D.“
Dr. Martinez and long time colleague Dr. Laura Symul, of Stanford University, had their work on holiday sexual activity and seasonal fertility covered in the UK’s The Guardian. Click the image below to read the article. Our work was also featured in The New York Post.
Dr. Martinez was interviewed by science journalist Flora Lichtman on Science Friday! She discuss her work on infectious disease seasonality and biological rhythms. Click the image to listen to the full interview.
Dr. Martinez did an in-depth interview with journalist Jon Cohen for Science Magazine to discuss infectious disease seasonality and biological rhythms. Click the image below for the article.
Dr. Martinez was featured in Scientific American for her publication revealing the Calendar of Epidemics. Click the image below to read the article.
“Other researchers have talked about the seasonality of certain diseases, but Martinez may be the first to survey such a wide range of conditions and find this common thread.”
Dr. Martinez and long time collaborator Dr. Kevin Bakker wrote a scientific journalism piece on birth seasonality that was published in the Smithsonian Magazine.
Dr. Martinez and and colleague Dr. Sam Rund had their work featured in The Atlantic. Their policy proposal garnered attention because it called for widespread integrated vector surveillance for mosquitoes.
Dr. Martinez and colleagues used Google Trends digital epidemiology to reconstruct the timing of chickenpox epidemics around the world. The work was published in PNAS and featured in Science. Click the image to read the full manuscript.
Dr. Martinez’ work on Zika congenital infection and conception planning was discussed in Vogue. Click on the image to read the article.
Videos About Our Research
Watch Dr. Martinez speak at the 45th Annual Darwin Festival: From Air to Makeup: Addressing Enviromental Justice in the U.S.
Watch Dr. Martinez discuss mercury and lead exposure in Environmental Justice communities at the NASEM Health and Medicine Division meeting on Addressing Health Disparities in Central Nervous System Disorders.
Watch Dr. Martinez discuss Environmental Justice and Electrification: Opportunities and Challenges.
Watch Dr. Martinez and colleague Dr. Jeff Shaman talk to Science Insider about disease seasonality and the processes that curtail epidemics.
Dr. Martinez did an in-depth interview Science regarding her work on disease seasonality and the multi-year clinical investigation she has underway with colleagues at the University of Surrey to study seasonal changes in immunity and physiology. Watch the video below produced by Science to see Dr. Martinez at work.
While working on her seasonal rhythms clinical study in the UK, Dr. Martinez was interviewed by the Weather Channel. Click below to watch her discuss birth seasonality.
Dr. Martinez talks about getting to chase her big ideas with the NIH Director’s Early Independence Award, which has funded her research from 2016-2022.
Watch a virtual lecture by Dr. Martinez on SIR Models with Herd Immunity. She gave this lecture to undergrads at the MIDAS-CCDD Diversity Conference 2022.
The Martinez Lab 