Recognized for her tremendous “attention to detail, professionalism, and creativity,” Maggie is a rising scholar sure to make an impact.

Maggie Rabotnick is committed to promoting maternal and fetal health. Over ten years ago, Maggie first started volunteering with the nonprofit organization Project Cuddle, which provides access to prenatal care and other forms of support. The experience illuminated many of the challenges and hardships experienced by pregnant women, especially those of low socioeconomic status, and inspired Maggie to pursue a career path in support of maternal health.

While earning her bachelor’s in environmental science at UCLA, Maggie’s commitment to public health grew. She conducted community-based research during this time that identified a significantly increased risk of cardiovascular, kidney, and other diseases in predominantly Latinx and low socioeconomic status communities that contained residential oil wells. To better understand how environmental exposures impact risk in vulnerable populations, Maggie went on to earn a master’s degree in public health at UM-Ann Arbor, where she worked with a multidisciplinary team to generate educational resources for a community experiencing local drinking water contamination with perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA).

Now as a doctoral candidate in the field of toxicology, Maggie is building on her previous work and investigating the link between polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) exposure and placental function. By identifying altered biomolecular pathways following PFAS exposure, this research will enable decision-makers to better understand how preeclampsia develops in pregnant individuals. Maggie’s ultimate goal is to use her findings to support the development of screening techniques and therapeutics that will reduce the prevalence and severity of adverse pregnancy outcomes. Recognized for her tremendous “attention to detail, professionalism, and creativity,” Maggie is a rising scholar sure to make an impact.

CEW+ applauds Maggie’s commitment to improving maternal health and names her a Riecker Graduate Student Research Fellow.