Olivia Halabicky

Dr. Olivia Halabicky is an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan with dual appointments in the School of Nursing and School of Public Health, specifically in the Department of Nutritional Sciences and Department of Health Behavior and Clinical Sciences. Her research focuses on children's environmental health, examining how early life exposures to toxicants, adversity, and nutrition shape neurodevelopment and health trajectories.

Dr. Halabicky earned her PhD in Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania (2021), MSc in Nursing with focus on Child Health and Wellbeing from Trinity College Dublin (2018), and BSN from Saginaw Valley State University (2015).

Her research program investigates how environmental exposures at sensitive developmental periods influence health disparities, with particular emphasis on lead exposure and its effects on neurodevelopment, physiological stress responses, and long-term health outcomes. She employs interdisciplinary methods from nursing, environmental epidemiology, and developmental sciences, primarily working within the ELEMENT cohort, a Mexican birth cohort followed for over 30 years.

Analysis of Dr. Halabicky's publication record reveals a strong focus on environmental toxicants, particularly lead exposure, and their impacts on child development across multiple domains including neurocognitive function, physiological stress markers, sleep patterns, and cardiovascular health. Her work consistently examines how social factors like parental education modify these exposure-outcome relationships, highlighting the intersection of environmental and social determinants of health.

• Scholar, Michigan Program for Advancing Cultural Transformation (M-PACT), University of Michigan, 2024
• Center Scientist, Michigan Lifestage Environmental Exposures and Disease (M-LEEaD) Center, 2024-2025
• Award, Rising Star, Rho Chapter Sigma Theta Tau International, 2023
• Fellow, Early Career Interdisciplinary Scholars, Society for Research in Child Development, 2023
• Future of Nursing Scholar, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2018-2021
• Award, Young Alumni, Saginaw Valley State University, 2018

Dr. Halabicky serves as Principal Investigator on multiple research grants including a Center Scientist Award from the Michigan Lifestage Environmental Exposures and Disease (M-LEEaD) Center and a National Institute of Nursing Research grant (L30 NR020943) examining early life lead and psychosocial co-exposures on adolescent physiological stress. While she is not currently accepting new PhD students, she has extensive teaching and mentorship experience in both nursing and public health programs, delivering guest lectures on environmental exposures and child health.

Her professional affiliations include the Center for Global Health Equity at the University of Michigan, Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiologic Research, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, International Society for Environmental Epidemiology, Society for Research in Child Development, Midwest Nursing Research Society, and Sigma Theta Tau International.