top of page
Exploring Social, Economic and Environmental Determinants of Health
Break the Cycle of Children’s Environmental Health Disparities in Latin America Symposium for the
22nd Annual International Conference on Urban Health
in Mexico City
on October 12-17, 2026.
Break the Cycle of Health Disparities, Inc.
In Partnership with
International Society for
Children’s Health and the Environment
International Society for Urban Health
presents:
Break the Cycle
of Children’s Environmental Health Disparities
in Latin America
Monday October 12, 2026
At the
22nd ICUH Conference in Mexico City, Mexico
Questions on project ideas or program details can be directed to our Break the Cycle Program Coordinator, Ximena Guillen at contact@breakthecycleprogram.org or to Break the Cycle Director, Leslie Rubin MD at lrubi01@emory.edu.
Break the Cycle of Children’s Health Disparities, Inc.
and International Society for Children’s Health and Environment
Present:
Break the Cycle of Children’s Environmental Health Disparities
in Latin America
1st Annual Conference
Mexico City
October 12, 2026
8.00 am
Registration and Refreshments
9.00 am
Welcome – Break the Cycle/ISCHE Initiative
Lesliam Quiros-Alcala, Johns Hopkins University
Leslie Rubin, Morehouse School of Medicine
9.10 am
Introduction to Break the Cycle Program
Leslie Rubin, Morehouse School of Medicine
9.30 am
Urinary fluoride and early kidney injury biomarkers in underprivileged children before and after an intervention in an endemic fluorosis area
Daniela Cruz Torres, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública de MexicoMentor: Dr. Paulina Farias Serra
9.50 am
Acting on Power: An Essential Approach to Environmental Health Inequities
Dr. Carlos A. Faerron Guzmán, Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, Director of the InterAmerican Center for Global Health, and Senior Advisor at the Planetary Health Alliance at Johns Hopkins University
10.10 am
HEALTH BREAK
10.20 am
Environmental Justice for Children: Reducing Plastic-Related Exposures and Promoting Alternatives in Indigenous Communities in Mexico
Montserrat Mendoza Martinez, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí
Mentor: Fernando Diaz
10.40 am
Invisible Threats: Chemical Exposures and Asthma in Urban Children
Dr. Lesliam Quirós-Alcalá, Johns Hopkins University, Department of Environmental Health and Engineering
11.00 am
Toward Precision Surveillance of Childhood Lead Exposure in Mexico: Identifying Municipal
Exposure Profiles
Pablo León Alazraki Salas,
Mentor: Dr. Fernando Díaz Barriga Martínez, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí (UASLP) / PAHO Collaborating Center
11.20 am
Science, Surveillance, and Policy: The Journey of Lead Exposure Research in Mexico
Dr. Mara Tellez Rojo, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública (INSP)
11.50 am
LUNCH BREAK
1.20 am
Environmental lead and arsenic exposure and kidney function in children from Tlaxcala,
Mexico in a context of health disparities
Lizette Rodríguez Pacheco, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán
Mentors: Norma Pérez Herrera & Manolo Ortega Romero
1.50 am
Intrauterine and Urban Metal Exposure in Rio de Janeiro: birth cohort Evidence for
Surveillance, Education, and Targeted Health Action. PIPA UFRJ - Brazil
Dr. Nataly Damasceno de Figueiredo, Professor, School of Medicine of Souza Marques University Center, Postdoctoral Researcher in Environmental Health/Epidemiology at the Institute of Collective Health Studies, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (IESC/UFRJ).
2.20 am
Where Can the City Act?
Early Childhood, Neighborhoods and the Conditions that Shape Health
Mr. Bosmat Sfadia-Wolf, CEO Urban95 Israel
2.40 am
HEALTH BREAK + INTERACTIVE SESSIONS WITH KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
3.30 am
Wrap up & Adjourn
Students and Speakers
Montserrat Mendoza Martínez
Environmental Justice for Children: Reducing Plastic-Related Exposures and Promoting Alternatives in Indigenous Communities in Mexico
Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí (UASLP)
PhD Candidate in Environmental Sciences at the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí (UASLP), in the Multidisciplinary Program in Environmental Sciences (PMPCA)
Dr. Fernando Díaz Barriga Martínez, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí (UASLP) / PAHO Collaborating Center
Montserrat Mendoza is a scientist and environmental activist committed to environmental health. She is pursuing a PhD in Environmental Sciences at UASLP/PAHO Collaborating Center, researching plastic pollution and environmental civic engagement to protect Indigenous and vulnerable communities. She holds degrees in Environmental Sciences and Public Health. She coordinates volunteer groups focused on environmental education, citizen participation, and climate justice.
Pablo León Alazraki Salas
Toward Precision Surveillance of Childhood Lead Exposure in Mexico: Identifying Municipal Exposure Profiles
Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM)
Affiliation
Mara Tellez Rojo, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública (INSP)
Pablo León Alazraki Salas holds a Bachelor’s degree in Data Science from ITAM and is currently pursuing a specialization in Artificial Intelligence and a Master’s degree in Applied Computational Sciences, also at ITAM. He has published two research articles and is particularly interested in projects that leverage technology and data to create meaningful social impact.
Daniela Cruz Torres
Urinary fluoride and early kidney injury biomarkers in underprivileged children before and after an intervention in an endemic fluorosis area
University: Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública de México
Master of science
Dr. Paulina Farías Serra, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública de México
Daniela Cruz Torres is a biologist who recently graduated with a Master of Science in Environmental Health from the Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública de México. Her academic training has focused on
environmental and public health, particularly heavy metal bioremediation and children’s exposure to fluoride through drinking water. Her main areas
of interest include ecotoxicology, climate change, and the development of strategies to address emerging environmental challenges.
Lizette Rodríguez Pacheco
Title: Environmental lead and arsenic exposure and kidney function in children from Tlaxcala, Mexico in a context of health disparities
Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán
Health Sciences
Dr. Norma Pérez Herrera, Universidad
Autónoma de Yucatán and Dr. Manolo Ortega Romero, Centro Médico Nacional “Siglo XXI”
Lizette Rodríguez Pacheco is a PhD student in Health Sciences at the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán in Mexico. Her research focuses on environmental health, pediatric populations, and the potential health effects of environmental metal exposure. Her current research examines the relationship between metal exposure, demographic vulnerabilities, and early kidney injury among children in Mexico.
Faculty and Keynote Speakers
Nataly Damasceno de Figueiredo, MSc, PhD.
Intrauterine and Urban Metal Exposure in Rio de Janeiro: birth cohort Evidence for Surveillance, Education, and Targeted Health Action. PIPA UFRJ - Brazil
Professor at the School of Medicine of Souza Marques University Center, she is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Environmental Health/Epidemiology at the Institute of Collective Health Studies, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (IESC/UFRJ, since 2022). She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York (2023–2024). Currently serving as a fellow at the International Society of Children's Health and the Environment - Researchers to Action program (ISCHE - R2A). Additionally, she serves as Executive Coordinator of the Childhood andEnvironmental Pollution Birth Cohort (PIPA Project: https://pipaufrj.me.ufrj.br/).
Enrique Cifuentes MD, PhD, MMedSci
Public Health in Mexico Megacity: The Environmental Dimension in Children’s Health Disparities
Retired, 2024 (Extended sabbatical and hiking in remote places),
2020-2024, Visiting Professor, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York City. Implemented on line courses for students and young professionals from Latin American and the Caribbean. These courses focused on public health challenges in rapidly growing cities,
2010-2019 , Research Scientist, Harvard School of Public health, conducting
epidemiological investigation on the food environment and obesity in children from Mexico City, Guadalajara. Implemented an exchange program and field-based courses involving dozens on students,
1995- 2010, Researcher- Professor, National Institute of Public Health, Mexico.
Director of the PEHSU, Mexico.
1995, PhD, London School of Tropical Medicine (UK). Research on water, sanitation and public health in periurban areas,
1982- 1991, Director, Community Health projects in indigenous communities, Mexico.
1979 - 1982, MMedSci Community Medicine, University of London
1978. MD, UNAM, Mexico.
Dr. Carlos A. Faerron Guzmán
Acting on Power: An Essential Approach to Environmental Health Inequities
Synopsis: This presentation examines how unequal distributions of power shape who is most exposed to environmental change, who experiences the greatest health consequences, and who has the ability to influence the decisions that affect them. Drawing on the power–health–environment nexus, it explores how environmental degradation and even some responses to it can reinforce existing health inequities when underlying power imbalances are left unaddressed. It argues that advancing environmental and planetary health requires moving beyond vulnerability alone to explicitly confront power, representation, and the structural conditions that determine
whose health is protected and whose is placed at risk.
Dr. Carlos A. Faerron Guzmán is a global health professional with a deep-rooted passion for education and a commitment to promoting health equity, addressing complexity, and emphasizing the importance of values in shaping a better world.
Carlos A. Faerron Guzmán is a Costa Rican physician, educator, and scholar whose work connects global health, planetary health, equity, governance, and transformative education. His work pays particular attention to the values that shape collective decisions in the face of the Anthropocene. He has worked in primary health care in Indigenous territories in southern Costa Rica and has led initiatives with communities, universities, public institutions, and international networks. He is an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, the Director of the InterAmerican Center for Global Health, and Senior Advisor at the Planetary Health Alliance at Johns Hopkins University. He holds adjunct positions at Northwestern University, Harvard University, and the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. He is a fellow of the Central American Healthcare Initiative and a visiting scholar at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health.
I Leslie Rubin, MD
I. Leslie Rubin, MD
Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Morehouse School of Medicine, Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Director, Break the Cycle Program, Pediatric Environmental Specialty Unit (PEHSU), Emory University, Medical Director, The Rubin Center for Autism and Developmental Pediatrics, President and Founder, Break the Cycle of Health Disparities, Inc.
Dr. Rubin is originally from South Africa, where he trained in pediatrics, then went to Case Western Reserve in Cleveland Ohio, then Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts, and now at Morehouse School of Medicine and Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.
Dr. Rubin is a Developmental Pediatrician who provides pediatric and interdisciplinary coordinated care for children with developmental disabilities and their families and is the primary editor of 3 editions of a textbook addressing health care for children and adults with developmental disabilities.
In 2004, he founded the non-profit Break the Cycle of Health Disparities, Inc. and started the annual Break the Cycle of Children’s Environmental Health Disparities program in partnership with the Southeast PEHSU to raise awareness among university students of children’s environmental health disparities and to cultivate future leaders to address these challenges. To date there have been 21 annual programs with over 200 students from over 50 different academic departments in over 20 states in the USA as well as from 6 countries in Latin American and 2 Countries in Africa.
In 2024 he started a Break the Cycle Africa program now in its 4 th year. To date, there have been more than 200 papers published in international journals as well as 20 books in a Public Health Series with Nova Publishers. The program received The Children’s Environmental Health Excellence Award from the US EPA in 2016.
Dr. Rubin’s personal mission is to collaborate with others to improve the health and well-being of children and adults with developmental disabilities and reducing children’s health disparities and promoting health equity for all children, locally, nationally, and globally in the context of environmental and social justice and in the face climate change.
Dr. Lesliam Quirós-Alcalá
Dr. Quirós-Alcalá is an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a leader in exposure science and environmental epidemiology. Her research focuses on the health impacts of endocrine disruptors and other environmental exposures, with a particular emphasis on
environmental justice and on communities historically underrepresented and
disproportionately burdened by environmental risk, including workers, pregnant women, women of reproductive age, and children. Her scholarship advances evidence-based science that informs public health policy, prevention strategies, and interventions to reduce environmental health disparities.
She has been recognized with the International Society of Exposure Science Joan Daisy Young Exposure Scientist Award and holds leadership roles with
the International Society for Children’s Health and Environment (ISCHE president), the Health Effects Institute (Advisory Board), the Maryland Governor’s Commission on Environmental Justice and Sustainable Communities (Councilor), Children’s Environmental Health Network
(Advisory Board), and the NIOSH Board of Scientific Counselors.
Together with Dr. Leslie Rubin of Morehouse University, she helped launch the 2026 Break the Cycle/ISCHE Scholars Program in Latin America.
Associate Professor Johns Hopkins University, Department of Environmental Health and Engineering Bloomberg School of Public Health
International Society of Children’s Health and Environment (ISCHE), President
Martha María (Mara) Téllez-Rojo, DSc. MStat. Mat
Martha María (Mara) Téllez-Rojo is a Senior Research Scientist at the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico, with expertise in environmental epidemiology and biostatistics. Her research focuses on the exposome, integrating environmental exposures (e.g., metals, endocrine disruptors, air
pollution), social stressors, and lifestyle factors to understand their impact on maternal and child health.
She co-leads the ELEMENT and PROGRESS birth cohorts, with a focus on early-life exposures and long-term health outcomes, including neurodevelopment and cardiometabolic risk.
Her work also includes population biomonitoring and the translation of scientific evidence into public health policy, particularly in lead exposure prevention.
%20T%C3%A9llez-Rojo%2C.png)
Martha María (Mara) Téllez Rojo, Investigadora en Ciencias Médicas F, SNI-III, Centro de Investigación en Nutrición y Salud, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública,
Science, Surveillance, and Policy: The Journey of Lead Exposure Research in Mexico
Bosmat Sfadia-Wolf
Bosmat Sfadia-Wolf is an architect, urban planner, and urban systems leader working at the intersection of early childhood, urban governance, public health, and parental wellbeing. As CEO of Urban95 Israel, she leads a national urban initiative working across nearly 40 municipalities to embed the needs of young children and caregivers into urban policy, planning, and implementation.
Over the past decade, Bosmat has led and advanced system-level change across diverse urban contexts, building collaborations between municipalities, national government, research institutions, civil society, communities, and philanthropy. Her work focuses on translating evidence into policy and practice and creating sustainable approaches that can be adapted across Arab, mixed, and socioeconomically diverse cities.
Trained as an architect, Bosmat uses the everyday experiences of young children and caregivers as a lens for understanding how urban environments and public systems shape health, wellbeing, and opportunity. Her current work explores how cities can reduce disparities in the conditions in which children grow and develop, and how stronger connections between the built environment, public health, and urban governance can create healthier conditions for families.
Bosmat holds a B.Arch in Architecture from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and an MA in Housing and Urbanism from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.
CEO Urban95 Israel
Early Childhood, Neighborhoods and the Conditions that Shape Health
bottom of page