Dr. Maida Galvez is a pediatrician whose clinical, research, and advocacy work is dedicated to promoting healthy environments for all children, with a focus on high poverty communities. She is Professor in the Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health and the Department of Pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai where she is Founding Director of the New York State Children’s Environmental Health Center (NYSCHECK)—the first state-wide, publicly funded model for children’s environmental health clinical services in the United States. The model was developed with seed funding over the past 13 years, and in 2017 and in 2022, was awarded  five year contracts from the New York State Department of Health. NYSCHECK sites are located across New York State, including in Albany, Buffalo, Long Island, New York City, Rochester, Syracuse, and Westchester. Mount Sinai serves as the coordinating center. Since 2006, she has also served as Director of the Region 2 Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU), a US Environmental Protection Agency and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) program that provides environmental health services to communities in New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. She also serves as the Community Engagement Director for the Mount Sinai Clinical & Translational Science Award (CTSA) Program Conduits and the Mount Sinai P30 Center for Health and Environment Across the Lifespan.

Dr. Galvez works to translate emerging research into programs and policies that prevent and reduce environmental exposures for children, their families, and their communities. She previously served on the EPA’s federal advisory board for the Office of Children’s Health Protection, is a past president of District 2 Chapter 3 American Academy of Pediatrics, and is a current member of the CDC/American Public Health Association National Environmental Health Partnership Council, the Children’s Environmental Health Network Board, the Clean and Healthy Scientific Advisory Panel, and the New School Parsons Healthy Materials Lab Advisory Committee.

Dr. Galvez is a recipient of the 2016 Region 2 EPA Environmental Champion Award, the 2017 Science Champion Award from Clean and Healthy and is a member of the Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society.

Education

MD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Masters in Public Health, Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Residency, Pediatrics, Montefiore Medical Group

Residency, Pediatrics, Jacobi Hospital Center

Fellowship, Pediatric Enviromental Medicine, The Mount Sinai Hospital