Alicia Peterson, PhD

alicia.k.peterson@kp.org

Alicia Peterson, PhD, is a staff scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research within the Women’s and Children’s Health Section. Dr. Peterson completed her PhD in Epidemiology at the University of Southern California and her bachelor’s degree in Public Health at the California State University, Los Angeles.

Dr. Peterson’s research has predominantly focused on prenatal exposure to environmental contaminants and their influence on in utero fetal growth and birth outcomes. She is particularly interested in assessing these associations in populations facing health disparities and how biologically measured stress and perceived stress may modify observed relationships. Her prior research concentrated on prenatal exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and ambient air pollution which was assessed with distributed lag models to identify critical windows of exposure. Currently, her research focuses on prenatal environmental exposures including PFAS and organophosphate flame retardants (OPFR) and their influence on metabolic outcomes experienced during pregnancy and early life adiposity. She is especially interested in evaluating exposure profiles through mixtures modeling approaches. This work is conducted within two DOR cohorts participating in the NIH funded Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) research coalition.

Current Position

Staff Scientist

Section Affiliations:

Women’s and Children’s Health

Primary Research Interests:

Perinatal epidemiology
Environmental epidemiology
Health disparities

Studies

Prenatal and Early Life Air Pollution Exposure and Pubertal Development

This study seeks to address critical knowledge gaps regarding the relationships between preconception, prenatal, and early-life exposure to ambient air pollution and pubertal development in geographically, racially, and ethnically diverse populations. It aims to identify sensitive windows of exposure and examine how individual- and neighborhood-level factorssuch as in utero exposure to an obesogenic environment via gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), childhood growth trajectories, and neighborhood deprivationmay mediate or moderate these associations.

Investigator: Peterson, Alicia

Funder: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Determining the modifying role of prenatal depression on the association between gestational diabetes mellitus and early childhood obesity

This study will explore the potential modifying (i.e., synergistic) impact of prenatal depression on the association between gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and childhood weight trajectories, as well as the risk of childhood obesity across various life stages. We hypothesize that a synergistic effect will occur in children born to mothers who experienced both GDM and prenatal depression during pregnancy, resulting in a more pronounced upward trajectory in childhood BMI and an increased likelihood of obesity at each life stage. We anticipate that the offspring of women facing both conditions will display accelerated weight gain and a higher risk of obesity at each life stage compared to those born to women who had only one or neither of these conditions during pregnancy.

Investigator: Peterson, Alicia

Funder: Northern California Community Benefit Programs

Publications

Association between gestational PFAS exposure biomarkers and risk of preeclampsia in the ECHO Cohort

Authors: Cathey A;Woodbury M;Varshavsky J;Velasquez S;Zhu Y;Alshawabkeh A;Cordero J;Velez-Vega C;Peterson A;Ferrara A;Meeker JD

Environ Res. 2025 Dec 24:123597.

Alicia Peterson, PhD

Current Position

Section Affiliations:

Primary Research Interests:

Studies

Prenatal and Early Life Air Pollution Exposure and Pubertal Development

Determining the modifying role of prenatal depression on the association between gestational diabetes mellitus and early childhood obesity

Publications

Association between gestational PFAS exposure biomarkers and risk of preeclampsia in the ECHO Cohort

Pre- and postnatal exposure to PM2.5 and NO2 and blood pressure in children: Results from the ECHO Cohort

Gestational PFAS concentrations in association with maternal depression and perceived stress during pregnancy and postpartum in the ECHO cohort

Psychosocial stressors as modifiers of the associations between well-studied and understudied chemicals and birth outcomes in the ECHO Cohort

Prenatal organophosphate ester exposure and epigenetic changes at birth: a characterization of the methylome in the ECHO cohort

Disparities in the association of ambient air pollution with childhood asthma incidence in the ECHO consortium: A US-wide multi-cohort study

Urinary concentrations of early and mid-pregnancy parabens and gestational diabetes: A nested case-control study within the PETALS cohort

The Effect of Occupational Therapy Services on Functional Mobility for Patients with Cancer in Acute Care Settings

Prenatal exposure to environmental bisphenols over time and their association with childhood asthma, allergic rhinitis and atopic dermatitis in the ECHO consortium

Prenatal per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance exposures and DNA methylation among newborns in the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes program

Advancing Understanding of Chemical Exposures and Maternal-child Health Through the U.S. Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program: A Scoping Review

The effect of occupational therapy services on hospital readmission for patients with cancer in acute care settings: a retrospective data analysis

PFAS concentrations in early and mid-pregnancy and risk of gestational diabetes mellitus in a nested case-control study within the ethnically and racially diverse PETALS cohort

Associations between area-level arsenic exposure and adverse birth outcomes: An Echo-wide cohort analysis

Ambient air pollutants are associated with morning serum cortisol in overweight and obese Latino youth in Los Angeles.

Third trimester cortisol is positively associated with gestational weight gain in pregnant women with class one obesity.

Prenatal Maternal Cortisol Levels and Infant Birth Weight in a Predominately Low-Income Hispanic Cohort.

Exploring the evidence for epigenetic regulation of environmental influences on child health across generations

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