Marsha Wills-Karp

MARSHA WILLS-KARP, PhD, is the Anna M. Baetjer Professor in Environmental Health and Engineering and has been the chair of the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering (formerly the Department of Environmental Health Sciences) since 2012. Dr. Wills-Karp’s research focuses on defining the environmental and genetic determinants of allergic airway diseases such as asthma. She has made substantial contributions to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying allergenicity of common allergens, specifically how allergens and airborne pollutants activate innate immune pathways through molecular mimicry.

Prior to joining the Bloomberg School, Dr. Wills-Karp was a professor and the founding director of the Division of Immunobiology in the Department of Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. She also directed the Immunobiology Graduate Program at Cincinnati. Dr. Wills-Karp previously worked at Johns Hopkins as a postdoctoral fellow from 1987 to 1990 and was a member of the faculty from 1990 to 2000. Dr. Wills-Karp earned her doctorate from the University of California, Santa Barbara and completed postdoctoral training at Yale University.