Faculty/Staff Robbie Ali, MD, MPH, MPPM

Assistant Professor
Director, Center for Healthy Environments and Communities

Graduate School of Public Health
A226A Crabtree Hall
Pittsburgh, PA 15261

Phone: 412-624-2942
Fax: 412-383-5846
E-mail: rali@pitt.edu

RESEARCH

My research interests lie in conservation health, CBPR (community-based participatory research), and operations research as it relates to environmental and community health.

I collaborated with The Nature Conservancy and the Government of Indonesia on a health initiative for rainforest-dwelling peoples, part of an effort to protect endangered orangutans in Borneo. I also worked with Project HOPE to develop a district-wide program to improve health care in rural Aceh, Indonesia after the tsunami. In 2007 I began work on an environmental health initiative and university partnership in Wuhan, China. In Pittsburgh, I am particularly interested in promoting adolescent wellness and skill building, vegetarian nutrition, sustainable living, and community gardens and green spaces in low-income areas. At the Graduate School of Public Health I am the director of the Center for Healthy Environments and Communities, supported by the Heinz Endowments. The center takes a community-based approach to social as well as physical aspects of local environmental health. Its mission is to become a central resource for information and collaboration, report on regional trends, increase the relevance of environmental health to local communities, and involve people in improving their lives and neighborhoods.

TEACHING

I teach PH 2009 (Critical Issues in Global Health), GSPH's introductory course towards the Global Health Certificate. I also worked with Pitt's Public Service Degree Program and the Honora's College to develop course credit options for university students mentoring through the CAST (College After School Team) at Peabody, a local urban high school.

SERVICE

I serve on advisory committees for several local environmental organizations and several committees for the Pittsburgh Public Schools. I am a member of the Environmental Justice Advisory Board for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as well as the Consortium for Conservation Medicine (CCM). I also serve as faculty advisor for several University of Pittsburgh student organizations. In 2007 I was nominated for the Chancellor’s Distinguished Faculty Service Award.

MOST RECENT PUBLICATIONS

• Ali R, How Can Physicians Become Well-Informed About Environmental Health Issues? Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 48(3): March 2006.
  342-344.

• Ali R, Introducing Indonesian Medical Students to Rainforest Conservation and Community Health in the Field: A Practicum Experience in East Kalimantan.
  EcoHealth 3, (3) Sept. 2006. 195-203.

• Ali R, Wheitner D Talbott E, Zborowski J, Connecting Environmental Health Data To People And Policy: Integrating Information And Mobilizing Communities For Environmental Public Health Tracking. Journal of Community Health: 32(4) 2007.

• Ali R, Jacobs S, Saving the Rainforest through Health Care: A Case Study in Borneo. International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health. 13(3) Jul-Sept. 2007.

• Shamalla L, Jacobs S, Ali R. A Conservation Health Program in Borneo: Environmental Practice 2008.

• Ali R, Zhao H. Wuhan, China and Pittsburgh, USA: Environmental Health Past, Present, and Future. EcoHealth 2008.

• Chapter in People, Health, and Forests, Colfer C and Kleinau E, eds., 2008