Faculty Expert Profile
Thomas Burke
- Jacob I. and Irene B. Fabrikant Chair of Health Policy and Management
- Professor Environmental Health and Engineering
Affiliations
- Bloomberg School of Public Health
- Institute for Health and Social Policy
- Risk Sciences and Public Policy Institute
Languages spoken
- English
Burke’s research interests include environmental health policy; evaluation of population exposures to environmental pollutants; assessment and communication of environmental risks; and application of epidemiology and health risk assessment to public policy.
Before joining Johns Hopkins, Burke was deputy Commissioner of Health for New Jersey and Director of Science and Research for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. In these roles, he directed initiatives that influenced the development of national programs, such as Superfund, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Toxics Release Inventory.
Burke was science adviser and deputy assistant administrator for Research and Development at the Environmental Protection Agency from January 2015 to January 2017, working on the scientific response to major national issues including the impacts of hydraulic fracturing and the drinking water contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan.