Robyn Gershon

Clinical Professor of Epidemiology

Professional overview

Dr. Gershon is an interdisciplinary occupational and environmental health and safety researcher with extensive experience in the areas of disaster preparedness, healthcare safety, and risk assessment and management in high-risk work occupations. She earned her doctorate in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University, School of Public Health, where she was on faculty for several years.  

Subsequently, Dr. Gershon was a Professor at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, with a joint appointment in the School of Nursing.

At the Mailman School, she also served as the Associate Dean for Research and was the Director of the Mentoring Program. Her most recent faculty appointment prior to joining NYU GPH was Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She was also an Adjunct Professor in the UCSF School of Nursing, as well as at UC Berkeley where she taught public health disaster courses.

Dr. Gershon and her team conducted numerous ground breaking studies to develop and test new metrics of preparedness. Importantly, Dr. Gershon’s work has influenced the adoption of safe work practices and regulatory control measures, such as national needlestick prevention guidelines and high-rise building fire safety laws. Her numerous research studies encompass a wide range of topics, including, (to name a few): bloodborne pathogen exposure; hospital safety climate; psychosocial work stress in law enforcement; “ability and willingness” of essential workforce employees to report to duty during natural and man-made disasters; preparedness of responders for terrorist incidents; emergency high–rise building evacuation- (including the World Trade Center Evacuation Study); emergency preparedness of the elderly and disabled; mass fatality management infrastructure in the US; adherence to emergency public health measures among the general public;  hearing loss risk in subway ridership; and noise exposure in urban populations.

Dr. Gershon recently completed a four-year, longitudinal intervention NIH-funded study on motivation and persistence in pursuing STEM research careers among underrepresented doctoral students. (the BRIDGE Project). 

As a committed advocate for junior faculty and graduate students, Dr. Gershon will play an active role in research mentorship and advisement. 

Education

BS, Medical Technology, Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT

MHS, Medical Microbiology, Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT

DrPH, Environmental and Occupational Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD

Honors and awards

Recipient, American Society of Safety Engineers, Membership Award, Oakland, CA (2016)

Recipient, John L. Ziegler Capstone Mentor Award, Global Health Sciences, University of California San Francisco (2015)

Recipient, City of New York Fire Commissioner's Special Commendation Certificate of Appreciation (2006)

Recipient, Survivors' Salute, World Trade Center Survivors' Network (2006)

Recipient, Annual International Sharps Injury Prevention Award (2005)

Delta Omega (Public Health) Honorary Society (1997)

Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society (Microbiology) (1976)

Lambda Tau Mu Honor Society (Laboratory Science) (1976)

Areas of research and study

Disaster Health

Disaster Impact and Recovery

Disaster Preparedness

Environmental Public Health Services

Epidemiology

Healthcare Safety

Occupational Health

Risk Assessment and Management

Publications

Publications

Health care workers' ability and willingness to report to duty during catastrophic disasters

Hepatitis B vaccination in correctional health care workers

Public transportation: Advantages and challenges

Reports of intimate partner violence made against police officers

Risk of tuberculosis in correctional healthcare workers

Clinicians' Knowledge, Attitudes, and Concerns Regarding Bioterrorism after a Brief Educational Program

Effectiveness of an emergency preparedness training program for public health nurses in New York City

Job loss, unemployment, work stress, job satisfaction, and the persistence of posttraumatic stress disorder one year after the september 11 attacks

Measurement of Organizational Culture and Climate in Healthcare

Preliminary results from the World Trade Center evacuation study-New York City

Safety climate: assessing management and organizational influences on safety

Terrorism preparedness training for occupational health professionals

Bloodborne pathogen exposure risk for non-hospital based healthcare workers

Emergency preparedness training for public health nurses: A pilot study

Infectious disease risk in correctional facility-based healthcare workers

Prevalence of safer needle devices and factors associated with their adoption: Results of a National Hospital Survey

Work stress in aging police officers

Infection control practices among correctional healthcare workers: Effect of management attitudes and availability of protective equipment and engineering controls

Psychosocial work stress in female funeral service parctitioners

The risk of acquiring hepatitis B or C among public safety workers. A systematic review

Behavioral-diagnostic analysis of compliance with universal precautions among nurses.

Factors affecting universal precautions compliance

Health care workers' experience with postexposure management of bloodborne pathogen exposures: A pilot study

Hospital safety climate and its relationship with safe work practices and workplace exposure incidents

Testing the reliability and validity of a measure of safety climate.