Sara Duncan, Ph.D. joins CleanAIRE NC as a scientist and educator eager to apply her expertise in air pollution exposure to serve communities in North Carolina. Sara earned a BS in environmental science from Hawaii Pacific University in 2012 and a Ph.D. from Rutgers University in environmental exposure science in 2018. Her graduate work focused on characterizing indoor air chemistry, particularly in homes, as it pertains to exposure and health. In 2019 she joined the faculty at Western Carolina University as an Assistant Professor of Environmental Health where she taught classes in public and environmental health and conducted community-based research to better understand air pollution exposures for residents in Western NC. 

Now, Sara works to expand CleanAIRE’s technical capacity by developing a sought after indoor air quality program. She is also taking the reins on expanding educational offerings for a variety of constituents through the CleanAIRE Academy and other initiatives. 

When not at CleanAIRE, Sara can be found with her rescue dog trail running in the southern Appalachian Mountains and elsewhere.