Devra Lee Davis, Ph.D., M.P.H., designated a National Book Award Finalist for When Smoke Ran Like Water – a book centered on her hometown of Donora, Pa. in which more than 20 residents died from inhaling toxic fumes over the course of four days in October 1948 – heads up the Environmental Oncology Center at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. Honored for her research and public policy work by various national and international groups, Dr. Davis is professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, visiting professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz School, honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and expert advisor to the World Health Organization.
As the former senior advisor to the assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Davis has counseled leading officials in the United States, the United Nations, the World Health Organization and The World Bank on environmental dangers. In 1994, President Clinton appointed Dr. Davis to the newly established Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, an independent executive branch agency that investigates, prevents and mitigates chemical accidents. She also was a distinguished visiting professor at Yeshiva University and Stern College and scholar in residence and executive director of the board on environmental studies and toxicology at the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Davis received the Woman of Distinction Award from the Conservative Judaism's Women's League and was recognized by the Noreen T. Holland Foundation for leadership in advancing the understanding of potential environmental causes of breast cancer. She also has been honored by the Betty Ford Comprehensive Cancer Center and the American Cancer Society and was commended by the director of the National Cancer Institute for outstanding service.
Dr. Davis holds a bachelor’s degree in physiological psychology and a master’s in sociology from the University of Pittsburgh. She completed a doctoral degree in science studies at the University of Chicago and a master’s degree in public health in epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University as a senior National Cancer Institute post-doctoral fellow. She is the author of more than 170 scientific publications and the editor of 11 books.