Amy Kalkbrenner

Dr. Amy Kalkbrenner is an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Public Health. Her research focuses on environmental epidemiology, specifically examining how exposures to environmental pollutants during pregnancy and early childhood influence neurodevelopmental outcomes.

Dr. Kalkbrenner's educational background includes:

• PhD in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• MPH in Epidemiology/Biostatistics & Public Health Nutrition from the University of California, Berkeley
• BA in Biology & Psychology from Indiana University, Bloomington

As an environmental epidemiologist, Dr. Kalkbrenner's primary research examines how exposures to environmental pollutants during pregnancy or early childhood may increase the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders like autism. Her current projects address airborne pollutants including volatile organic compounds, traffic-related pollutants, and tobacco smoke, investigating their potential impact on behavioral and social problems in childhood. She also works to improve methodological approaches in environmental epidemiology by exploring autism diagnosis patterns, incorporating nuanced measures of behavioral phenotypes, and identifying critical developmental windows of vulnerability to toxicant exposures. Dr. Kalkbrenner is passionate about teaching introductory epidemiology and environmental epidemiology, describing epidemiology as "the science of getting the right number" to inform public health measures.

Analysis of Dr. Kalkbrenner's recent publications reveals a strong focus on autism spectrum disorders and environmental exposures, with particular attention to air pollutants, metals exposure, and tobacco smoke. Her work increasingly incorporates genetic and genomic approaches to examine gene-environment interactions, particularly regarding polygenic risk for autism and systemic inflammation. She has also expanded her research to examine the impacts of environmental exposures on cognitive aging and neurodegenerative diseases, particularly related to cadmium exposure. Her methodological contributions include developing approaches to test etiologic heterogeneity among non-competing diagnoses and applying Bayesian g-computation methods to estimate impacts of interventions on exposure mixtures.

Dr. Kalkbrenner leads the Kalkbrenner Lab, which focuses on environmental influences on neurodevelopment. Her research is highly collaborative, often involving multi-site studies and international cohorts. She has secured significant research funding to support her investigations into environmental risk factors for autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions. Her work bridges environmental health sciences with clinical and public health applications, aiming to inform societal measures that will improve public health.