Rebecca DeVries
Vice President and Senior Epidemiologist
I’ve always been an environmental health advocate, but this work became personal when I learned that my local drinking water supply was contaminated with PFAS. Now my family and I, like many others, have questions about how our environment might harm our health. I continue to be committed to delivering the best possible science when answering these questions.
Dr. Rebecca DeVries is an accomplished epidemiologist who routinely designs, implements, and evaluates research that investigates links between exposure to harmful substances and adverse health effects. She has successfully managed numerous high-profile and scientifically complex projects requiring expertise in epidemiology, risk assessment, exposure assessment, systematic literature reviews, advanced statistical modeling, database management, and risk communication. This work includes management of many projects on emerging and groundbreaking issues ranging from epidemiological investigations of opioids, stimulants, and their metabolites in high school wastewater to comprehensive reviews examining the connection between occupational heat exposure and heat-related illnesses and injuries.
As an expert on exposure and health risks from PFAS in the environment, she served as co-investigator for a federal study that examined whether adults and children in two communities with PFAS-contaminated drinking water had a higher incidence of selected adverse health outcomes, including neurobehavioral effects in children. For two statewide PFAS biomonitoring programs, she helped develop study protocols, data management plans, and statistical methodologies. Rebecca also managed the first-ever Massachusetts statewide assessments of PFAS contamination in fish, shellfish, and invertebrates in surface waters; and she has adopted novel techniques to investigate PFAS contamination in sea foam and other challenging matrixes.
Rebecca is a respected environmental health trainer and educator. She has prepared exposure assessment guidance and tools used for use by federal and state agencies; developed and led training courses on environmental health topics for government clients; and taught graduate-level courses in occupational epidemiology and environmental health as an adjunct professor at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. She has published extensively in the literature, presented at scientific conferences, and currently serves as co-president of the New England chapter of the Society for Risk Analysis. She holds a B.S. in environmental science from Ithaca College and an M.S. and Sc.D. in epidemiology from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.