Dr. Abby D. Mutic is an Assistant Tenure Track Professor at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing with a clinical and translational research background in perinatal and pediatric environmental exposures. She currently serves as the Principal Investigator of the Southeast Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU) at Emory University. She earned a B.S. in Biology & Psychology from Drury University, a B.S.N. in Nursing from Saint Louis University, an M.S.N. in Nurse Midwifery from Vanderbilt University, and a Ph.D. in Nursing from Emory University. As Director of the Southeast PEHSU, she oversees healthcare provider consultations and education, research training programs, and community outreach in US federal Region 4. Notably, the Emory PEHSU is one of only two programs in the National PEHSU network’s 20+ year history to be led by a Nurse Researcher. Since joining the PEHSU, she has received multiple administrative supplements focused on pediatric environmental exposures. One focused on exposures following natural disasters and another on enhancing the capacity of providers to address exposures resulting from disinfectant use in school settings. Recently, her team was funded to develop innovative virtual reality experiences to educate healthcare providers and individuals on indoor environmental asthma triggers. She has published multiple peer-reviewed articles in occupational and environmental health and presented at several national meetings on various children’s environmental health topics and produced many research translational products including four videos, a social media campaign toolkit, and infographics. She was the recipient of a P50 Children’s Environmental Health Center (C-CHEM2) pilot award to assess the feasibility of environmental and biological data collection among preschool children in Early Learning Centers and home settings; the first of this kind in the Southeast. This work builds on her dissertation work that assessed environmental chemical mixtures in homes, urine, and serum in a cohort of pregnant African American women. Most recently, she secured a nursing research grant to explore advanced statistical analysis methods that incorporate high-dimensional, complex chemical mixtures related to pediatric asthma. She is delighted to bring the resources of our regional and national PEHSU network to this project as a member of the Center for Climate and Health Evidence, Equity, and Resilience.
‍

Sites for Dr. Mutic

PEHSU FB : https://www.facebook.com/PehsuSE/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ceh.matters/

Translation Center: https://www.nursing.emory.edu/initiatives/charter#Page-Home

1. Mutic, A.D., Mauger, D.T., Grunwell, J.R., Opolka, C., & Fitzpatrick, A.M. Social Vulnerability Is Associated with Poorer Outcomes in Preschool Children with Recurrent Wheezing Despite Standardized and Supervised Medical Care. The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. In practice. 2022 10(4), 994–1002. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaip.2021.12.043.
2. Grunwell JR, Mutic AD, Ezhuthachan ID, Mason C, Tidwell M, Caldwell C, Norwood J, Zack S, Jordan N, Fitzpatrick AM. Environmental Injustice is Associated with Poorer Asthma Outcomes in School-Age Children with Asthma in Metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia. J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract. 2024 Feb 18:S2213-2198(24)00171-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jaip.2024.02.015. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38378096.
3. Molchan C, Zhang W, Fitzpatrick A, Mutic A. Clustering by chemicals: A novel examination of chemical pollutants and social vulnerability in children and adolescents. Environ Res. 2024 Feb 9:118456. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.118456. Epub. PMID: 38342203.
4. Hatfield, H., Mutic, A., Barnes, M., Smith, G., Ahn, S.J. Translating Children’s Environmental Health Science Using Virtual Environments: A Community-Based Participatory Research Approach. Environmental Justice. https://doi.org/10.1089/env.2024.0044. Online Ahead of print.
5. Anderko, L., Pennea, E., Cardon, M.K., McDermott-Levy, R., Mutic, A. Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances – Forever Chemicals: An Overview for MCN Professionals. The American Journal of Maternal Child Nursing. Ahead of print. PMID: 40029199
6. Cheng, Y., Lv, Z., Schreder, E., Hu, M., Mutic, A., Zheng, G, Salamova, A. Elevated Concentrations of Quaternary Ammonium Compounds in Childcare Centers: A Pilot Study. Journal of Hazardous Materials Letters. Online Ahead of Print. 2025 Jan 2: 100138 doi.org/10.1016/j.hazl.2024.100138
7. LaPointe S, Beagle LE, Zheng X, Kancherla V, Mutic A, Chang HH, Gaskins AJ. Associations between exposure to extreme ambient heat and neural tube defects in Georgia, USA: A population-based case-control study. Environ Res. 2024;261:119756. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.119756. PMID: 39117054.

N408/N604MN Maternity & Reproductive Health

N561 & N631 Nurse Midwifery I & II

N539MN Optimal Wellness Across the Lifespan                           

N322 Health Promotion and Wellness   

• Pediatric and Reproductive Environmental K12 Scholar
  2024-26
• Paper of the Year NIEHS Award
  2024-25
• Loan Repayment Program Pediatric Research Award, National Institutes of Health
  2023-25
• CHARTER Translational Science Pilot Award
  2022-23
• Loan Repayment Program Pediatric Research Award, National Institutes of Health
  2021-23
• Office of Nursing Research Award, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing
  2021-22
• Translational Education and Mentoring in Science Fellow, Georgia CTSA
  2020-21
• Children’s Environmental Health Center Pilot Award, Emory University
  2019