Creating Opportunities for Students in Environmental Health and Sustainability Sciences
As employment opportunities in the area of environmental health and sustainability science
remain strong and continue to expand, UNI students have the opportunity to learn under the
guidance and leadership of Dr. Catherine Zeman. Zeman’s educational background is extensive
and extremely representative of her wealth of knowledge as she has received degrees in nursing,
biology and anthropology, a master’s in Environmental Science and a PhD. in Preventive
Medicine with an emphasis in Environmental and Occupational Health.
Dr. Zeman has focused her research on non-cancer end points related to environmental science
and sustainability science areas. She has researched and studied nitrate induced blood disorders
and the manner in which these pertain to environmental health disparities. Nitrate is a naturally
occurring form of nitrogen and is very mobile in water. This topic is relevant and important to
our society due to the fact drinking water that is high in nitrate has the potential to harm human
health, particularly the health of children. Dr. Zeman has dedicated her outreach and community
work to serving underserved and disadvantaged populations and has worked extensively with
rural poor and Roma communities. She is a past Fulbright Scholar to Romania where she began
working with Roma communities in 2004.
“Environmental health is perhaps the foundational area of public health and health promotion,”
Zeman said. “Its first practitioners (are) recognized through their efforts to control infections and
communicable diseases.” However, the role that environmental exposures play in chronic
disease is also a major area of investigation involving both cancer and non-cancer outcomes.
Dr. Zeman’s work has appeared in various academic journals such as Environmental Health
Perspectives and the Journal of Environmental Health and she has delivered presentations at the
National Environmental Health Association and American Public Health Association. Dr.
Zeman’s educational background and personal research provides UNI students with the
opportunity to competently understand the theories and practices of environmental and
occupational health sciences.
She teaches various classes at UNI including epidemiology, human diseases, environmental
health and environmental and occupational health regulations. Students study tools utilized by
environmental health professionals such as scientific and epidemiological methods and
biostatistics to gain an understanding of the relationship between our health and the surrounding
environment.
Zeman’s teaching style is one that allows students to achieve their full potential and reach a level
of capability and independence they may not have realized prior to her courses. Her courses are
detailed and fact oriented and beside a lecture portion, includes guest experts, small group
discussions and projects provided to students.
“The main goal of all my teaching efforts is to aid students in developing their innate capacity to
think, not to simply tell them what to think,” Zeman said. “And to judge the value of the
information they discover using the methods of scientific inquiry for themselves.”
In addition to her work as a Professor and researcher/scholar, Dr. Zeman also serves as the
Director of the Recycling Reuse Technology Transfer Center (RRTTC), located on UNI’s
campus. The RRTTC is designed to have a positive impact on the environment and educate
students and community members about topics such as sustainability, composting and recycling.
The center serves as a research, education and outreach center for the development of
economical approaches to solving solid waste problems and provide assistance and research on
public health concerns. It works with business and industry and community groups in Iowa on
topics of sustainability and solid waste issues, engaging with thousands of individuals on and off
campus each year and networking with over 50 non-governmental community based
organizations each year.
Zeman manages outreach activities such as promoting educational activities at the local Waterloo
farmer’s market, a clean-up effort of the Dry Run Creek area, celebrating Earth Week and
screening environmental health films for the local community and campus, among many other
projects.
Dr. Zeman has dedicated herself to her education, teaching and research projects. But she also
strongly believes in giving back to her community by working to develop new technologies and
ideas to provide a bright and hopeful future for our children.
“It is a great honor to provide outreach services and programs to the larger community and to the
University,” Zeman said. “It is my hope that in some small ways, I can honor the trust that has
been bestowed upon me to educate young people within the community, by giving my best back
to it and engaging with the community on topics of interest to them.”