Yeager Lab

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About

Dr. Yeager is an interdisciplinary health geographer. His research program focuses on the complex and place-dependent interplay between environmental factors and human health. Dr. Yeager's research extends to studying the health effects of environmental exposures, equitable public health interventions, and the development of nature-based solutions to address climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. 

Collaborating with organizations including The Nature Conservancy, the Arbor Day Foundation, and the U.S. Forest Service, he works to translate scientific findings into effective policies and interventions. Dr. Yeager is dedicated to bridging research and practice, advocating for sustainable and health-promoting environmental policies to combat the interconnected local and global challenges of our time. 
 
Integrated with his research program, Dr. Yeager oversees collection, storage, analysis, and interpretation of geospatial information at the Envirome Institute. This includes geographic data analysis methods of geocoded participant records, assessment of geophysical characteristics, characterization of environmental exposures, and development of visual representations of geographic information. 

His expertise is integrated throughout the Envirome Institute, Center for Healthy Air Water and Soil, Superfund Research Center, and Center for Integrated Environmental Health Sciences. Dr. Yeager is also a member of the American Geophysical Union, National Institutes of Health Climate Change and Health Research Coordinating Center Community of Practice, and International Society of Environmental Epidemiology where he also serves on the policy committee of the North America Chapter. 

Team

Brendan O’Conner, GIS analyst 

Gregg Shirk, Environmental Monitoring Coordinator 

Key Research Areas 

  • Cardiovascular health
  • Greenness and health
  • Environmental interventions
  • Implementation science
  • Geospatial analyses
  • Climate change and health
  • Climate change adaptation
  • Cumulative burdens 

 

Recent Publications

  • Yeager, R., Tuholske, C., Browning, M.H.E.M., Olmsted, S., Mattingly, C., Ossola, A., Locke, D. Association between observed climate change and cardiovascular disease in the United States. GeoHealth. 2026.
  • Browning, M.H.E.M., Mack, A., Zhang, K., McAnirlin, O., Olmsted, S., Thurson, K. M., Reuben, A., Yeager, R.  The Extent and Types of Community Burdens Vary Extensively Across Justice40 Communities. Environmental Justice. 2026.
  • Riggs, D.W., Cobbold, S., Sears, C.G., Malovichko, M., Sithu, I., Sansbury, B., Yeager, R., Wysoczynski, M., Srivastava, S., Keith, R., Bhatnagar, A. Relations of Residential Greenness with Immunity and Inflammation. Environmental Research. 2026.
  • Riggs, D.W., Cobbold, S., Sears, C.G., Malovichko, M., Sithu, I., Sansbury, B., Yeager, R., Wysoczynski, M., Srivastava, S., Keith, R., Bhatnagar, A. Relations of Residential Greenness with Immunity and Inflammation. Environmental Research. 2026.
  • Williams, H., Andersen, Z.J., Boogaard, H., Brage, S., Browning, M.H.E.M., Cai, S., Chen, X., deSouza, P., Dzhambov, A.M., Fenech, B., Flower, G., Forastiere, F., Garcia, L., Gasparrini, A., Gehring, U., Gowers, A.M., Hoek, G., Khomenko, S., Lim, C.C., Lu, C., Mitsakou, C., Pozzer, A., Ramani, T., Roscoe, C., Spadaro, J., Tatah, L., Vienneau, D., Woodcock, J., Yeager, R., Zapata-Diomedi, B., Nieuwenhuijsen, M., Khreis, H. Expert Perspectives on Exposure-Response Functions for Urban Health Policy: Lessons from a UBDPolicy Workshop. Environmental Research. 2026.
  • Tomlinson, M.M., Kerstiens, S., Smith, C., Agbonlahor, O., Clarke, J., Vincent, K., Walker, K.L., McLeish, A.C., Keith, R., Smith, T., Yeager, R., Wood, L., Bhatnagar, A., Hart, J. The association between perceived neighborhood safety and cardiovascular disease risk factors. Psychology, Health & Medicine. 2025.
  • Abolins-Abols, M., Yeager, R., Turner, J., Smith, T., Bhatnagar, A. Greenness and pollution exposure predict corticosterone concentration in an urban songbird. Frontiers in Physiology. 2025.
  • Derracq, A.K., Bliznick, C., Yeager, R., Turner, J., Pease, J., Whiteman, H., Smith, T., Bhatnagar, A. Air Pollution and Greenness Independently and Interactively Influence Bird Communities in an Urban Neighborhood. Conservation Science and Practice. 2025.

  • Yeager, R., Keith, R., Riggs, D.W., Fleischer, D., Browning, M., Ossola, A., Walker, K., Hart, J., Srivastava, S., Rai, S.N., Smith, T., Bhatnagar, A. Intra-Neighborhood Associations between Residential Greenness and Blood Pressure.  Science of the Total Environment. 2024. 

  • Bhatnagar, A., Keith, R., Yeager, R., Riggs, D.W., Sears, C., Bucknum, B., Smith, T., Fleischer, D., Chandler, C., Walker, K., Hart, J., Srivastava, S., Turner, J., Rai, S. The Green Heart Project: Objectives, Design, and Methods. American Journal of Epidemiology 2024.  

  • Riggs, D.W., DuPre, N., James, P., Rai, S.N., Yeager, R., Sears, C.G., Laden, F., Bhatnagar, A. Association of Ecoregion Distribution of Greenness with Cardiovascular Mortality: A Longitudinal Ecological Study in the United States. Circulation Research. 2024.  

  • Dong, J., Browning, M.H.E.M., Reuben, A., McAnirlin, O., Yuan, S., Stephens, C., Maisonet, M., Zhang, K.,  Hart, J.,  James, P.,  Yeager, R.   The Paradox of High Greenness and Poor Health in Rural Central Appalachia.  Environmental Research. 2024.  

  • Browning, M.H.E.M., Locke, D., Konijnendijk, C., Labib, S.M., Rigolon, A., Yeager, R., Bardhan, M., Berland, A., Dadvand, P., Helbich, M., Li, F., Li, H., James, P., Klompmaker, J., Reuben, A., Roman, L.A., Tsai, W-L., Patwary, M., O'Neil-Dunne, M., Ossola, A., Wang, R., Yang, B., Yi, L., Zhang, J., Nieuwenhuijsen, M. Measuring the 3-30-300 rule to help cities meet nature access thresholds. Science of the Total Environment. 2024. 

  • Yeager, R., Browning, M.H.E.M., Breyer, E., Ossola, A., Larson, L., Riggs, D., Rigolon, A., Chandler, C., Fleischer, D., Keith, R., Walker, K., Hart, J., Smith, T., Bhatnagar, A. Greenness and equity: complex connections between intra-neighborhood contexts and residential tree planting implementation. Environment International. 2023.  

  • Coleman, C., Yeager, R., Pond, Z., Riggs, D.W. Bhatnagar, A., Pope, C.A. Mortality risk associated with greenness, air pollution, and physical activity in a representative U.S. cohort. Science of the Total Environment. 2022. 

  • Yeager R., Holm R., Kumar S., Fuqua J., Talley D., Bhatnagar A., Smith T. Wastewater sample site selection to estimate geographically-resolved community prevalence of COVID-19: A research protocol. Geohealth. 2021.  

  • Yeager, R., Riggs, D.W., DeJarnett, N., Srivastava, Sh., Lorkiewicz, P., Xie, Z., Krivokhizhina, T., Keith, R., Srivastava, Sa., Browning, M.H.E.M., Zafar, N., Krishnasamy S, DeFilippis, A., Turner, J., Rai, S., Bhatnagar, A. Association between residential greenness and exposure to volatile organic compounds. Science of the Total Environment. 2020.  

  • Yeager, R., Smith, T., Bhatnagar, A. Green Environments and Cardiovascular Health. Trends in Cardiovasc Medicine. 2020 

Yeager Lab

Phone

502-852-9069 

Location

CII 118 

Email