Gina Solomon, MD, MPH

Gina Solomon researches science and policy issues related to toxic chemicals and environmental health. Her current work focuses on drinking water contaminants in areas affected by wildfires, and water quality in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities and those with high rates of breast cancer. She also works to protect public health from toxic chemicals in consumer products and pesticides. Dr. Solomon leads the Achieving Resilient Communities (ARC) project, engaging and empowering California communities to strengthen health despite a changing climate.

Dr. Solomon is also a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). She served as the Deputy Secretary for Science and Health at the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) from 2012-2018, and as a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council from 1996-2012. She was the director of the occupational and environmental medicine residency program at UCSF, and the co-director of the UCSF Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit. She has served on multiple boards and committees of the National Academies of Science, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and other federal and state agencies. Dr. Solomon received her bachelor’s degree from Brown University, her M.D. from Yale, and did her M.P.H. and her residency and fellowship training in internal medicine and occupational and environmental medicine at Harvard.

Watch: Gina Solomon on Wildfire Smoke, Extreme Heat & Farmworker Health

Farmworker communities are hit especially hard by climate change. “We rely on farmworkers for our food, and what we need to do is make sure that they’re protected from heat and wildfire smoke—that they’re informed about what to do, and that they’re actually paid for the days when it’s not safe for them to work,” says PHI’s Dr. Gina Solomon.