No matter where his professional career has taken him over the past two decades, Len Zwack, Sc.D., has always been drawn back into the world of academia.
“I’ve always enjoyed the academic environment,” Zwack said. “When I was doing consulting early in my career, I worked on a lot of projects in academic settings in the Boston area. Later in my career, while I was at the CDC, part of my job was to do outreach and disseminate our work to the greater occupational health community. This involved giving lectures at various colleges and I always enjoyed going back to campuses.”
Welcome back again.
Zwack recently began his position as Yale Environmental and Safety’s (EHS) Industrial Hygiene Manager and, within his first few weeks on the job, has already been impressed with both the size of Yale’s research community and the wide range of services EHS provides.
“I’m learning something new every day,” he said.
Zwack grew up in Branford and received his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University in 2001, majoring in biology as well as neuroscience and behavior. He then attended the Harvard School of Public Health and received his Master of Science in Environmental Health in 2006, majoring in industrial hygiene. He stayed at the Harvard School of Public Health to earn his Doctor of Science in Environmental Health in 2010, majoring in exposure assessment with minors in biostatistics and risk assessment. He also served as a teaching assistant at the Harvard School of Public Health during his time there.
He began his professional career as a staff scientist at Environmental Health and Engineering in Newtown, MA, working as a technical expert and project manager at a specialized consulting firm serving public and private clients. He then spent six years as a lead industrial hygienist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Cincinnati, OH. At NIOSH, Zwack managed a team of industrial hygienists as part of the NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluation program and led investigations into novel occupational disease outbreaks all throughout the United States and abroad. He also worked on CDC’s COVID-19 response.
Zwack moved back to Branford in 2021 to be closer to family and worked as an epidemiologist for the Connecticut Department of Public Health in Hartford in 2021-2022. There, he supported emergency response efforts as part of the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response during the COVID-19 pandemic.
His next stop was as an industrial hygienist at the Department of Veterans Affairs, VA Connecticut Health Care System in West Haven from 2022-2023, where he served as the senior industrial hygienist for both the West Haven and Newington VA hospitals. In this role, Zwack provided expert guidance on all manner of industrial hygiene-related issues at the hospitals.
For the three years prior to his arrival at Yale EHS, Zwack worked as agency industrial hygienist at the US Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). His role as the agency industrial hygienist helped provide national guidance and program management to protect APHIS workers around the world from environmental health impacts and provided subject matter expertise on all manners of industrial hygiene and safety-related issues at the agency.
“I feel I bring lots of experience on the hands-on, field-based side of industrial hygiene, as well as on the programmatic side,” said Zwack, who has been a full member of the American Industrial Hygiene Association since 2011. “While I was conducting more programmatic work at APHIS, focusing on implanting programs across the entire agency, much of my career has been spent doing hands-on industrial hygiene. I’m excited to be able to do more of that here at Yale.”
“I am genuinely excited to welcome Len Zwack to Yale EHS as our new Industrial Hygiene Manager,” said Courtney Drayer, EHS Associate Director. “Len’s experience at NIOSH, where he led complex exposure assessments and managed national health hazard evaluation projects, has given him a deep understanding of occupational health challenges and innovative solutions. At APHIS, Len oversaw nationwide respiratory protection and medical surveillance programs, authored comprehensive safety manuals, and provided expert guidance to protect thousands of employees. I believe Len’s proven ability to implement large-scale safety initiatives and his subject matter expertise will directly benefit Yale by elevating our industrial hygiene programs, strengthening our safety culture, and enhancing the well-being of our community. I look forward to the leadership and vision Len will bring to EHS.”
During his three years at APHIS, he also worked as an assistant professor adjunct in the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Program under Professor Carrie Redlich at the Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Internal Medicine.
Now, with his hiring at EHS, that return to academia has greatly expanded.
“The biggest thing I’ve noticed is that something new pops up every day,” he said of his brief time at Yale EHS. “It’s always an interesting challenge. There are so many different things to potentially get involved with here at Yale because there is so much research going on. There’s always something new and interesting to discover.”