Christopher Pettinato, MPH

Christopher Pettinato has dedicated his professional career of more than 25 years to the discipline of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene. After earning his MPH '96, he began his career in environmental risk assessment and management, working on a variety of projects related to assessing childhood and adult lead-based paint exposure risk and developing feasible mitigation strategies, managing soil and groundwater contamination testing and remediation projects, as well as leading safety risk management programs for workplace exposures to various chemical and physical hazards. Following several years in the consulting field, he joined Columbia University's Office of Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S), where he has continued to build a diversified profile in safety and environmental risk management, including accident investigation, chemical safety, construction safety, ergonomics, hazardous materials emergency response, indoor environmental quality, and many other areas of occupational and environmental hygiene, as well as subject matter expertise in hazardous waste management and site remediation, and occupational exposure assessment.

He currently serves as Columbia University’s Assistant Vice President of EH&S, where he provides leadership to a team of safety professionals who are committed to supporting the University's expansive research enterprise in assessing safety risks in research operations, conducting industrial hygiene hazard identification and exposure risk assessments, managing hazardous materials and regulated waste disposal, developing and delivering safety education, collecting and analyzing safety-related data, and overseeing a broad array of safety and environmental regulatory audit and compliance programs.