Faculty Profile

Amber Cathey

Amber Cathey, PhD, MPH

  • Assistant Research Scientist, Environmental Health Sciences

Dr. Amber Cathey is an Assistant Research Scientist at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Her research focuses on exposures to environmental chemicals during pregnancy and subsequent impacts on fetal growth, adverse birth outcomes, and early childhood development. She is particularly interested in disruption of the endocrine system during gestation and how hormone levels may be used as early markers of adverse pregnancy events. Dr. Cathey specializes in advanced analytical methodology including mixed effect modeling, shrinkage variable selection tools, and causal mediation analyses.

  • PhD, Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan, 2021
  • MPH, Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology, University of Michigan, 2017
  • BS, Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Michigan, 2015
  • BS, Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Michigan, 2015

PROTECT (Puerto Rico Testsite for Exploring Contamination Threats) project 1: Biomarker epidemiology of exposure to mixtures, oxidative stress, and adverse pregnancy outcomes in Puerto Rico

LIFECODES pregnancy biobank in Boston, MA; female reproductive epidemiology; endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs); advanced statistical methods in environmental epidemiology

Cathey AL, Watkins DJ, Rosario ZY, Vlez-Vega CM, Mukherjee B, Alshawabkeh AN, Cordero JF, Meeker JD. Biomarkers of exposure to phthalate mixtures and adverse birth outcomes in a Puerto Rico birth cohort. Environmental Health Perspectives, 130(3):37009.

Cathey AL, Aung MT, Watkins DJ, Rosario ZY, Vlez-Vega CM, Alshawabkeh AN, Cordero JF, Mukherjee B, Meeker JD. Mediation by hormone concentrations on the associations between repeated measures of phthalate mixture exposure and timing of delivery. Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, 32(3):374-383.

Kim C, Cathey AL, Watkins DJ, Mukherjee B, Rosario ZY, Vlez-Vega CM, Alshawabkeh AN, Cordero JF, Meeker JD. Maternal blood metal concentrations are associated with matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) among pregnant women in Puerto Rico. Environmental Research, 209:112874.

Cathey AL, Watkins DJ, Rosario ZY, Vlez Vega C, O'Neill M, Loch-Caruso R, Mukherjee B, Alshawabkeh AN, Cordero JF, Meeker JD. Gestational hormone concentrations are associated with timing of delivery in a fetal sex-dependent manner. Frontiers in Endocrinology, 12:742145, 2021.

Cathey AL, Eaton JL, Ashrap P, Watkins DJ, Rosario ZY, Vlez C, Alshawabkeh AN, Cordero JF, Mukherjee B, Meeker JD. Phthalate mixtures are highly significantly associated with biomarkers of oxidative stress and inflammation during pregnancy. Environment International, 154:106565, 2021.

Cathey AL, Watkins DJ, Rosario ZY, Vlez Vega C, Loch-Caruso R, Alshawabkeh AN, Cordero JF, Meeker JD. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon exposure results in altered CRH, reproductive, and thyroid hormone concentrations during human pregnancy. Science of the Total Environment, 749:141581, 2020.

Cathey AL, Watkins DJ, Sanchez BN, Tamayo-Ortiz M, Solano-Gonzalez M, Torres-Olascoaga L, Tllez-Rojo M, Peterson KE, Meeker JD. Onset and tempo of sexual maturation is differentially associated with gestational phthalate exposure between boys and girls in a Mexico City birth cohort. Environment International, 136:105469, 2020.

Cathey AL, Watkins DJ, Rosario ZY, Vlez Vega C, Alshawabkeh AN, Cordero JF, Meeker JD. Associations of Phthalates and Phthalate Replacements With CRH and Other Hormones Among Pregnant Women in Puerto Rico. Journal of the Endocrine Society, 3(6):1127-1149, 2019.

Cathey AL, Ferguson KK, McElrath TF, Cantonwine DE, Pace G, Alshawabkeh A, Cordero JF, Meeker JD. Distribution and predictors of urinary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon metabolites in two pregnancy cohort studies. Environmental Pollution, 232:556-562, 2018.

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