Kevin Lanza, PhD
Assistant Professor of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences and Epidemiology
UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, Austin campus
Kevin Lanza, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences and Epidemiology at the Austin campus of UTHealth Houston School of Public Health.
As Director of the HEAT Lab, Lanza examines how environmental conditions shape the health of children and their households and designs, tests, and evaluates interventions—often nature-based—to improve health and equity. His goals include safely promoting children’s physical activity in the face of extreme heat, building heat-resilient public transit systems, examining volunteering as a youth health intervention, and supporting effective climate adaptation strategies in Africa.
His work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and has been featured in outlets including CNN, MSNBC, USA Today, Time Magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and National Public Radio.
He currently serves on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee and as an author contributing to the forthcoming U.S. National Physical Activity Plan. He previously served on the EPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors and on the author team for the Southern Great Plains chapter of the Sixth National Climate Assessment. View faculty webpage and CV.