Faculty members Director:
Claudia S. Miller, MD, MS
Associate professor of environmental and occupational medicine, Department of Family and Community Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
E-mail: millercs@uthscsa.edu
Academic interests: Environmental health, especially in South Texas; occupational health; chemical sensitivity; indoor air pollution; health effects of low level chemical exposure; neurotoxicology (pesticides, volatile organics); limbic sensitization; cholinergic sensitivity.
  Community instructors Community members also teach segments for STEER. They include Luis DeLeon and Calixto Seca, Texas Department of Health; Jim Eichman and David Gonzalez, U.S. Department of Agriculture; Lisa Flores and Sandra Gray, Texas A&M International University; Roger Garcia and Alfonso Martinez, MD, Laredo Health Department; Rosalia Guerrero, Centro Aztlan; Jorge Haynes, International Bank of Commerce; Fay Mainhart, Delphi Packard Electric; Tony Ramirez, Laredo herbalist; Sister Rosemary Welch, RN, Mercy Regional Medical Center.
Program coordinators
Roger B. Perales, registered professional sanitarian, formerly worked in environmental health for the City
of Laredo Health Department for more than three years. His duties included
restaurant and food inspection, air monitoring station operation, water
sampling and code enforcement. He has a bachelor’s degree in biology,
and is a candidate for a master's of public health degree at the UT-Houston Health Science Center.
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James M. Earhart, PhD
Professor of biological sciences, Laredo Community College
E-mail: rgisc@icsi.net
Academic interests: Documenting effects of urbanization in Laredo and Nuevo Laredo on the water quality of the Rio Grande; special problems in river biology; development of curriculum to teach about the environment and the biological sciences; member of the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission Steering Committee; executive director of the Rio Grande International Study Center.
John R. Herbold, DVM, MPH, PhD
Associate professor of epidemiology,
School of Public Health, The University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center,
San Antonio
E-mail: herbold@uthscsa.edu
Academic activities: Director of Longitudinal Studies, Investigation of Reproductive Health
Outcomes and Potential Risk Factors Among Air
Force Women, Defense Women's Health Research Program;
consultant to Texas Department of Health Zoonosis Control
Division and the Oral Rabies Vaccine Program;
supervising professor, Cooperative SPH/TDH Food Safety Practicum.
Lucy A. Peipins, PhD
Director, Division of Waterborne Hazards Control, Virginia Department of Health
E-mail: n/a
Research activities and interests: Investigations of hazardous substances and adverse health effects; microbial water contamination and risk of disease; recreational water quality issues; occupational and environmental health and epidemiologic methods.
Jimmy L. Perkins, PhD
Assistant dean and professor of environmental sciences,
School of Public Health, The University of Texas-Houston Health
Science Center, San Antonio
E-mail: perkinsjl@uthscsa.edu
Academic interests and activities: Permeation of chemicals through
protective clothing and all aspects of dermal exposure risk management;
statistical aspects of chemical exposure assessment;
public attitudes about environmental issues;
occupational health and industrial hygiene; risk assessment and risk
management; environmental health problems of the U.S.- Mexico border,
South Texas, and the Rio Grande Valley; environmental education. Dr. Perkins is a certified
industrial hygienist and has written an 880-page text on the
subject.
Thomas C. Vaughan, PhD
Associate professor of biology, Department of Natural Sciences,
Texas
A&M International University, Laredo
E-mail: tvaughan@tamiu.edu
Research interests: Rio Grande water quality, especially the effects of Laredo
and Nuevo Laredo on the quality of the river; the ecology of vertebrates in
South Texas.