Alexis J. Handal

Dr. Handal's research expertise is in occupational and environmental epidemiology, reproductive epidemiology, social epidemiology, and global health, and in particular, she works with Latinx and Indigenous populations in Latin America and in the United States. Dr. Handal studies the impact of large-scale agricultural production on the health of workers and surrounding communities, and with a particular focus on the health of female workers and pregnant workers and their families. Her community-engaged and participatory research approach uses a health equity lens focusing on understanding the interconnection between chemical exposures, and social and work stressors and supports in the context of precarious employment, on worker health and on maternal and child health and development. Dr. Handal's research interests also include exploring the health impact of worker's rights for pregnant employees, including an examination of worker protection legislation and gender discrimination on maternal and child health.

Over the past two decades, Dr. Handal has worked in Ecuador studying the impact of export-led flower production on maternal and child health and child development. Her current NIEHS-funded birth cohort study, SEMILLA (R011ES026603), examines the impact of fungicidal exposure and other critical social stressors associated with the presence of the flower industry on pregnancy and subsequent infant health. Dr. Handal is also the Lead Investigator of the Michigan Farmworker Project (MFP) with Dr. Lisbeth Iglesias-Rios. The MFP is a community-based participatory research (CBPR) program that examines the complex working and living conditions of farmworkers and their families in Michigan.

Dr. Handal appreciates and promotes the use of community-based participatory research (CBPR) and mixed methods approaches in epidemiologic research.