Senior Associate
Atlanta, GA
Melanie Buser, PhD, MPH
Melanie Buser, PhD, MPH, brings over a decade of expertise in environmental health, epidemiology, toxicology, and risk assessment through her work at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She is widely recognized for her leadership in environmental epidemiology, chemical risk assessment, risk communication, and science policy aimed at advancing environmental health. A skilled consensus builder, she is committed to fostering collaboration among diverse stakeholders to drive scientific priorities and enhance environmental public health.
During her decade-plus tenure at CDC/ATSDR, she developed toxicological profiles and conducted risk assessments for a broad spectrum of environmental contaminants. She systematically searched, evaluated, and interpreted scientific literature to produce comprehensive toxicological profiles, including for several high-profile substances such as PFAS, glyphosate, and lead. Through rigorous scientific review, she assessed and characterized the public health impacts of environmental exposures, with particular focus on reproductive and developmental health outcomes. A recognized expert on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), she served as a subject matter expert across CDC/ATSDR, advising on all aspects of PFAS—from emerging challenges, regulations, and toxicology to human health effects, environmental contamination, and the policy implications of proposed actions.
From February 2022 to May 2023, Melanie served as Assistant Director for Environmental Health at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In this role, she provided government-wide interagency leadership on the Administration’s science priorities, ensuring the quality, integrity, and practical utility of scientific information across the executive branch. She chaired the National Science and Technology Council’s Joint Subcommittee on Environment, Innovation, and Public Health, as well as four strategic teams addressing contaminants of emerging concern, PFAS, sustainable chemistry, and Veteran’s toxic exposures. Additionally, she co-chaired an air quality and community health subcommittee focused on advancing citizen science, promoting open access to data, and supporting environmental justice initiatives. Through these high-level working groups, she convened science leaders from across federal departments and agencies, fostering consensus on complex environmental issues and advising senior policymakers on regulatory and policy decisions.
Most recently, Melanie served as a Senior Health Scientist in CDC’s Division of Environmental Health Science and Practice. In this role, she led implementation of Trevor’s Law, providing technical assistance to internal and external partners on unusual patterns of cancer and environmental concerns. Her work included conducting literature reviews on environmental toxicants, advising on the application of guidelines for investigating unusual cancer patterns, and recommending relevant data sources and identifying gaps. She also directed the data analysis, interpretation, and presentation of findings from a nationwide toxicological outbreak involving lead and chromium contamination in cinnamon-applesauce pouches. In addition, she advised partners on outbreak response, including contaminant identification, assessment of health effects, and evaluation of potentially susceptible populations and differential exposure responses among groups. Melanie holds B.S. and B.A. degrees from the University of Georgia and an MPH from Emory University, and she is currently a Doctoral Candidate in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Georgia State University.