Neil Muscatiello, MS, MPH, is the Director of the Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology, Center for Environmental Health, NYS Department of Health. Bureau staff study, monitor, and evaluate the effects of exposure to toxic substances and other environmental factors at home, at work, and in the community. The Bureau is responsible for surveillance of chronic diseases and epidemiological studies to help identify environmental risk factors; geographic information system maps of disease and risk factors; surveillance and research of congenital malformations; registries of people exposed to environmental risk factors to monitor their health status over time; exposure investigations to identify and reduce environmental health risks; and public education regarding environmental and occupational exposures and health risks. He is also a member of the Climate Justice Task Force developing strategies for implementation of the climate justice goals outlined in the NYS Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), also known as “The Climate Act.”

Dr. Tabassum Insaf is an environmental epidemiologist by training and currently serves as the Research Director for the Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology at the New York State Department of Health. She is involved in multiple projects aimed at improving the surveillance capacity for NYS DOH’s environmental programs and strengthening the evidence base that informs environmental health policy. She previously served as the Principal Investigator on a NASA funded grant to assess heat stress vulnerability in NYS and Florida using satellite data. Her research into the non-linear temperature functions for extreme heat thresholds led to a revision of heat advisories in New York State and the surrounding region. She is currently a co-Investigator on a NASA Health and Air Quality Applied Sciences Team that is studying joint effects of extreme heat and poor air quality on vulnerable populations. Through her participation in the New York State Environmental Public Health tracking program, she and her team have been developing tools such as sub-county level indicators, story maps, county extreme heat and health profiles to improve access to climate information across the state. She has also been recently involved in assessing feasibility of some novel approaches to improving local and regional environmental health surveillance capacity across the state such as the use of satellite data to monitor harmful algal blooms and use of sewer-shed surveillance to estimate COVID-19 outbreaks in communities.

Neil and Tabassum are both actively involved in COVID-19 response in NYS.