— College of Public Health — Departments — Epidemiology — Faculty & Staff — Edward S. Peters, DMD, DM, SCD, FACE

Edward S. Peters, DMD, DM, SCD, FACE

Chair, UNMC Department of Epidemiology
Professor
Full member, Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center

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Edward S. Peters, DMD, DM, SCD, FACE, joined UNMC in 2021 and serves as chair of the College of Public Health Department of Epidemiology, where he also is a professor. He also is a full member of the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center.

Dr. Peters also served as chair and professor of the epidemiology program at the Louisiana State University School of Public Health, where he also was director of its epidemiology data center. He was a member of the Louisiana Cancer Research Consortium and served as co-director of the consortium's biospecimen and data core.

He previously was an instructor in Genetics & Complex Diseases (Cancer Biology) at the Harvard University School of Public Health and in Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine.

Earlier, he was an associate surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and an attending surgeon at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Residency

July 1994 - June 1996, Dental Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA, United States
July 1991 - June 1993, Fellowship in Oral Medicine and Oral Oncology, Brigham & Women's Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, United States
July 1, 1990 - June 30, 1991, General Practice Residency, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States

Licensure and Certifications

LA Dental License, State of Louisiana. (2018 - 2020)
Diplomate Dental Public Health, American Board of Dental Public Health. (2000 - Present)
MA Dental License, State of Massachusetts. (June 1990 - Present)

Education

1999, ScD, Harvard University, Major: Epidemiology
1995, SM, Harvard University, Major: Epidemiology
1993, SM, Harvard University, Major: Health Policy & Management
1990, DMD, University of Connecticut, Major: Dentistry
1985, BA, Clark University, Major: Biology

Research Interests

Dr. Peters' research interests use classic and molecular epidemiologic tools to examine molecular and biologic heterogeneity and susceptibility of cancer and other chronic diseases. This research examines how social determinants of health influence disparate disease outcomes through a transdisciplinary social-genomic perspective.

His lab is currently studying the interaction between the built environment, stress, inflammation, and the development of ovarian, colorectal, and oral cancers. He is the PI of the of a study to examine the impact of environmental stressors on chronic disease disparities in Women and Women's and Their Children's Health Study that was established to examine the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill's health effects. This project currently is investigating the impact of social stressors on epigenetic age acceleration and chronic health disparities and testing whether the social environment, individual health behaviors, and race/geography/SES modify or mediate the association between traumatic stress and health (disparities), directly or indirectly through biologic age acceleration.

Selected Publications

C., M., Oral, E., Straif-Bourgeois, S.C., Rung, A., & Peters, E.S. The effect of area deprivation on COVID-19 risk in Louisiana. PLOS ONE, 15(12), Dec. 2020. e0243028. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0243028
Rung, A., Oral, E., Berghammer, L., & Peters, E.S. (2020). Feasibility and Acceptability of a Mobile Mindfulness Meditation Intervention among Women: Intervention Study. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. June 2020 DOI: 10.2196/15943
Afaneh, H., Kc, M., Lieberman, A., Fenton, A., Santa Ana, S., Staples, L., Conner, J. M., & Peters, E. S. (2020). Rural-urban disparities in the distribution of dental caries among children in south-eastern Louisiana: a cross-sectional study. Rural and Remote Health, 20(3), 5954. DOI: 10.22605/RRH5954
Staples, J. N., Peres, L. C., Camacho, F., Alberg, A. J., Bandera, E. V., Barnholtz-Sloan, J., Bondy, M. L., Cote, M. L., Funkhouser, E., Moorman, P. G., Peters, E. S., Schwartz, A. G., Terry, P. D., & Schildkraut, J. M. (2020). Cardiometabolic comorbidities and epithelial ovarian cancer risk among African-American women in the African-American Cancer Epidemiology Study (AACES). Gynecologic Oncology, 158(1), 123–129. DOI: 10.1016/j.ygyno.2020.04.700
Du, Z., Weinhold, N., Song, G. C., Rand, K. A., Van Den Berg, D. J., Hwang, A. E., Sheng, X., Hom, V., Ailawadhi, S., Nooka, A. K., Singhal, S., Pawlish, K., Peters, E. S., Bock, C., Mohrbacher, A., Stram, A., Berndt, S. I., Blot, W. J., Casey, G., … Cozen, W. (2020). A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of multiple myeloma among men and women of African ancestry. Blood Advances, 4(1), 181–190 DOI: 10.1182/bloodadvances.2019000491

Professional Affiliations

Society of Epidemiologic Research
American College of Epidemiology
Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science
American Association for Cancer Research
International Society for Environmental Epidemiology
American Association of Public Health Dentistry
American Dental Association
American Association of Public Health

Awards

2000 James M. Dunning Award: Excellence in Health Care Delivery and Research, Harvard University
2010 Dr. Allen A. Copping Award for Excellence in Teaching, LSUHSC
2016 Pfizer/Salvatore Giorgianni Professorship of Health Systems, LSUHSC-SPH New Orleans