Research Interests
- Pediatric environmental health
- Pediatric endocrinology
Abby Fleisch, MD, MPH, is an environmental health researcher at CIPHR and a pediatric endocrinologist at Maine Medical Center. She is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine and an Adjunct Associate Professor of Environmental Health at Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Fleisch received her undergraduate and medical degrees from Northwestern University. She completed residency in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital/Boston Medical Center and fellowship in endocrinology at Boston Children’s Hospital. She participated in the Harvard-wide pediatric health services research fellowship and received a Masters of Public Health from Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. After serving on faculty at Boston Children’s Hospital for 3 years, she joined MMC in 2016.
Dr. Fleisch’s research is focused on the extent to which early life exposures to environmental toxicants such as air pollution and household chemicals are associated with childhood obesity and bone health. Dr. Fleisch is the principal investigator of an Outstanding New Environmental Scientist R01 award from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. She received the Academic Pediatric Association Michael Shannon Research Award in 2012 and an Endocrine Society Early Career Investigator Award in 2016.
Dr. Fleisch is a peer mentor for the Harvard Medical School-Harvard Catalyst Grant Review and Support Program and an affiliated faculty member and advisor to the New England Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit. She sees endocrinology patients at the Pediatric Subspecialty Clinic at MMC.
Rokoff LB, Rifas-Shiman SL, Coull BA, Cardenas A, Calafat AM, Ye X, Sagiv SK, Gold DR, Oken E, Fleisch AF. Mixtures of Early Pregnancy Environmental Exposures and Birth Size. Environmental Health. 2018; 17:19.
Fleisch, AF, Rifas-Shiman, SL, Mora, AM, Gibson, H, Gillman, MW, Oken, E, Sagiv, SK. Early Life Exposure to Perfluoroalkyl Substances and Childhood Metabolic Function. Environmental Health Perspectives. 2017; 125(3): 481-487. PMCID: 5332186.
Fleisch AF, Rifas-Shiman SL, Koutrakis P, Schwartz JD, Kloog I, Melly S, Coull BA, Zanobetti A, Gillman MW, Gold DR, Oken E. Prenatal Exposure to Traffic Pollution: Associations with Reduced Fetal Growth and Rapid Infant Weight Gain. Epidemiology 2015; 26(1):43-50. PMCID: 4285344.