Tracy Bastain

Tracy Bastain, PhD, is a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Southern California (USC) in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, and serves as Director of the MADRES Center for Environmental Health Disparities. Her research focuses on understanding how environmental and social stressors during pregnancy and early childhood influence maternal and child health outcomes, with a particular emphasis on low-income Hispanic/Latina populations. She leads the MADRES prospective pregnancy cohort study, which investigates air pollution, chemical exposures, and psychosocial factors affecting cardiometabolic, metabolic, and neurobehavioral health. Bastain also collaborates with the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program to analyze large-scale environmental and health data.

Her educational background includes a PhD and MPH (Master of Public Health). Her work integrates epidemiological methods with metabolomics, epigenetics, and geospatial analysis to quantify exposure-response relationships. Research themes include prenatal exposure to organophosphate esters, PM2.5, and other pollutants, their interaction with stress, and impacts on birth outcomes, childhood development, and long-term cardiovascular/metabolic health. She examines how socioeconomic factors and neighborhood characteristics modulate these effects, advocating for health equity in vulnerable communities.

Bastain’s studies consistently highlight the importance of environmental justice, showing how air pollution and chemical exposures disproportionately affect marginalized groups. Her recent work explores intergenerational epigenetic effects of parental adverse childhood experiences and maternal mental health’s role in miRNA profiles. She actively publishes in top journals like JAMA Network Open, Environmental Health Perspectives, and Epigenetics, emphasizing translational research with policy-relevant implications.

Her advisory role at the MADRES Center and involvement in major NIH-funded programs underscore her leadership in environmental health research. While no specific grants are listed, her position as Center Director implies significant grant support for cohort studies and interdisciplinary collaborations. Bastain’s profile reflects a career dedicated to advancing knowledge on the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD), with a strong focus on actionable solutions to reduce health disparities.