Mid-Atlantic Center for Children's Health and the Environment
This website is only for residents of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Washington D.C., West Virginia, and Virginia. If you are not a resident of these states, contact Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units (PEHSU)
The Mid-Atlantic Center for Children’s Health and the Environment (MACCHE) provides consultation and education to families and health providers about kids and environmental hazards.
The Center’s clinicians specialize in children’s and reproductive environmental health. Our team includes certified nurse midwife, family nurse practitioner, medical toxicologist, nurse, and pediatrician.
Contact us if you are pregnant and concerned about environmental exposures or if you suspect a child is experiencing health problems from exposure to environmental pollutants such as
- Indoor air pollution – mold, formaldehyde-laden building materials, asbestos, sick building issues, and asthma triggers
- Outdoor air pollution – asthma triggers and air pollutants including:air borne toxins, chemical waste, exhaust and fumes, carbon monoxide
- Water pollution – toxic bacteria, lead, PFAS
- Farming and lawn pollutants – fertilizers, pesticides
- Work-related exposure (for parents and employed teens) – solvents, chemicals, lead, sick building issues
- Other toxic exposures – mercury, lead, arsenic, solvents, hazardous waste
Making a Visible Difference
The Mid-Atlantic Center for Children's Health and the Environment works within our communities to make a visible difference. Click here for more information regarding the work done in your communities.
News & Events
July 28: MACCHE’s Dr. Laura Anderko Co-authors NASEM Report on PFAS Exposure, Testing and Clinical Follow-up
MACCHE Leadership
Co-director, Mid-Atlantic Center for Children's Health and the Environment;
Professor, Villanova University M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing
An expert in environmental health, global health, and public health nursing, Dr. McDermott-Levy has taught and conducted research in Philadelphia’s Arab-American and immigrant communities, with community health workers in Nicaragua, and in the Marcellus Shale region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Based on the evidence, she has provided health protective educational materials to those who live in oil and gas development communities.
With nurse colleagues around the U.S., Dr. McDermott-Levy has developed recommendations and teaching strategies to incorporate environmental health and climate change into the nursing curricula. Dr. McDermott-Levy is a co-editor of an open-access environmental health textbook for nurses, Environmental Health in Nursing. In 2018, she received the Fulbright-Saastamoinen Foundation Health and Environmental Sciences Award for Teaching and Research where she used this grant to research the health impact of climate changes in Finland. She is the 2020 recipient of the Charlotte Brody award from Health Care Without Harm. Her current research is the examination of climate change adaptation of community-based organizations to meet the needs of their clients.
Co-director, Mid-Atlantic Center for Children's Health and the Environment
Laura Anderko, PhD, RN is Co-Director of the Region 3 Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit, the Mid-Atlantic Center for Children’s Health and the Environment at Villanova University M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing. She is an educator and scholar in public health, nursing and environmental health. Over the past 7 years, Dr. Anderko has educated communities and health providers about potential health impacts and risk reduction strategies for perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). She has published extensively on PFAS, focusing on clinicians' role in addressing health impacts and strategies for reducing risks. In 2020, she participated in the NASEM Planning Meeting on Children's Health and Climate Change. Dr. Anderko received her MS in Nursing from Northern Illinois University and her PhD in Public Health from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Senior Associate Director
Emma Pennea has served as MACCHE senior associate director for 5 years. She earned a BA from New York University in Medieval Studies and a Master of Science in Global Health from Georgetown University in 2018. She has co-authored several articles about per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and their risk to children’s health.