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Ellen Kinnee, MA Urban & Regional Analysis Program · Geographic Information System Analyst 3343 Forbes Ave Room 235 Pittsburgh, PA 15260 Phone:  412-624-8884 Email:  ejk40@pitt.edu

Ellen Kinnee is a GIS Database Analyst at the University Center for Social and Urban Research (UCSUR).  Her research is focused on the interaction between community environment and health, including impacts of air pollution and climate change. She develops spatial databases and methods of Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis for both air pollution modeling and human exposure assessment and has contributed to numerous research projects. Her work has included integration of spatial and clinical trial data for a national scale study of environmental exposures and asthma interventions, using spatial analyses to assess the modification of asthma clinical trial results by social and environmental exposures. In addition, she has developed methods for incorporating spatiotemporal air pollution exposures into case-cross over models.  

She attracts a wide variety of research to UCSUR and is supporting a 5-Year NIH RO1 grant with researchers at Drexel University and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai looking at health effects of climate change on 30 million children across the state of New York and a 3-Year US EPA STAR grant to study resilience enhancing neighborhood assets among pediatric age groups in five New York urban areas. Several collaborations funded through Pitt CTSI Exploring Existing Data Resources Rapid Pilot grants have helped investigators to integrate GIS into medical research and have strengthened UCSUR ties with UPMC. The first study explores geographic and demographic utilization and barriers to Endocrinology specialty care through Telehealth services and their effect on cardiovascular and metabolic disease outcomes. A second study examining Artificial Light at Night exposure and circadian activity rhythm disruption in adolescents and young adults has received additional funding to continue this research beyond the CTSI grant. Support for the MYHAT study of dementia in the Mon Valley is ongoing and includes spatial data and manuscript development as well as assistance for a National Institute on Aging grant renewal submission. State of Aging surveys conducted by UCSUR in Allegheny and Westmoreland Counties were enhanced through the development of a spatial Age-Friendly Community Index (AFCI) comprised of a database of age-friendly Domains and spatial indicator variables at the Census tract level. Percentile rankings of values allow for comparison of tracts within the county using an interactive online map and have been distributed to affected stakeholders for use in policy applications. Results of analyses comparing survey participant perceptions of neighborhood environment from the Allegheny County State of Aging Survey with AFCI spatial indicators have recently been presented.

She previously worked as a senior GIS specialist supporting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Research Triangle Park, NC where she developed spatial data to improve inputs and evaluation of regulatory air quality models.  She received her MA in geography from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, focusing on GIS and dispersion modeling to assess community cancer risk from large above-ground gasoline storage tanks in Paw Creek, NC.