‍Dr. Aisha S. Dickerson is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Environmental Epidemiology track at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she is also a Bloomberg Professor of American Health in Environmental Challenges. She is affiliated with the Wendy Klag Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions, and the Johns Hopkins Center on Aging and Health.

A nationally recognized expert on the health consequences of lead exposure, Dr. Dickerson leads several studies examining how toxic metals, particularly lead, affect the brain across the entire lifespan. Her research has demonstrated that lead is linked to cognitive impairment and mental health symptoms, and that its effects are not limited to acute poisoning. She has published on the associations between ambient lead concentrations and autism spectrum disorder prevalence and has investigated occupational lead exposure as a risk factor for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Her expertise on lead has extended into public policy; in 2026, she provided expert testimony before the Maryland Senate Education, Energy, and the Environment Committee in support of legislation to phase out lead-based hunting ammunition, drawing on her research to illustrate the risks lead-contaminated game meat poses to hunting families and communities served by food banks.

More broadly, Dr. Dickerson is an environmental neuroepidemiologist whose work spans the intersection of environmental exposures, neurodevelopment, neurodegeneration, and health equity. She studies combined environmental and occupational exposures to metals, air pollutants, and psychosocial stressors, and their disproportionate impact on under-resourced communities.

2023 – 2025 Committee on the Mental Health Effects of Toxic Exposures Among Veterans Post-9/11 Veterans, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM)

2022 – 2024 Committee for Review of EPA’s Draft Formaldehyde Assessment, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM)

2021 – 2025 Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC), National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

2021 – 2022 Committee to Support EPA’s Development of Human Health Effects Assessments, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM)

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