About the Director of the Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment
Wayne E. Cascio, MD, FACC
Dr. Wayne Cascio serves as the Director of the Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment (CPHEA). He leads the development of human health and environmental assessments supporting EPA program and regional policies and decisions.
Dr. Cascio earned a B.A. from The Johns Hopkins University, and an M.D. from the University of Maryland at Baltimore. He completed clinical training in internal medicine, and cardiovascular diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and post-doctoral training in electrophysiology at the Physiologisches Institut, Universität Bern, Switzerland. With over 24 years in academia at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and East Carolina University, he engaged in clinical, research, teaching, and administrative activities. Prior to joining the EPA in 2011 Dr. Cascio worked to support public health and increase access to cardiovascular health care in underserved rural North Carolina and served on EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee for Particulate Matter.
Dr. Cascio is a clinician/scientist and is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Diseases and has authored or co-authored more than 200 journal articles and book chapters in the fields of medicine, public health, environmental sciences, biochemistry, pharmacology, chemistry, and engineering. He is the recipient of APHA’s 2018 Homer Calver Award, an EPA Gold Medal for Exceptional Service, two Bronze Medals for Commendable Service, the Office of Research and Development Impact Award, and numerous Scientific and Technological Achievement Awards.
Prior to his current role as Director of CPHEA, Dr. Cascio served as Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for Research and Development, where he led the development of human health and environmental assessments supporting EPA program and regional policies and decisions. As part of the EPA’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Cascio led a team of EPA scientists to develop the EPA Facility Status Dashboard, a graphical interface using the ESRI platform to provide up-to-date public health data on COVID-19 within the commuting areas of more than 120 EPA facilities within the US and its territories.