Howard Frumkin

Senior Vice President & Director of the Land and People Lab

Dr. Howard Frumkin is senior vice president at Trust for Public Land, where he directs the Land and People Lab.  The Lab advances TPL’s strategic commitments—health, climate action, equity, and community—by assembling evidence and propelling that evidence into policy and practice, building on TPL’s longstanding expertise, experience, and partnerships.

Dr. Frumkin is Professor Emeritus of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington School of Public Health, where he served as Dean from 2010-2016. He is also a Hagler Fellow at Texas A&M University. From 2005 to 2010 he held leadership roles at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as director of the National Center for Environmental Health and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (NCEH/ATSDR), and as Special Assistant to the CDC Director for Climate Change and Health. He is the author or co-author of over 300 scientific journal articles and chapters, and his books include Making Healthy Places: Designing and Building for Health, Well-being, and Sustainability; Environmental Health: From Global to Local; and two recent books on Planetary Health.

Dr. Frumkin received his AB from Brown University, his MD from the University of Pennsylvania, his MPH and DrPH from Harvard University, his internal medicine training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Cambridge Hospital, and his environmental and occupational medicine training at Harvard. A graduate of the Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership, Dr. Frumkin was named Environmental Professional of the Year by the Georgia Environmental Council in 2004. Dr. Frumkin lives in Seattle, where he is an avid cyclist, paddler, and hiker.  He is married to radio journalist Joanne Silberner and has two children.