Natalie Hurlock is a California Epidemiologic Investigation Service (Cal-EIS) Fellow working with the Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative within the Injury and Violence Prevention Branch (IVPB) at California Department of Public Health (CDPH).

Prior to working for the EfC Initiative, Natalie attended Emory University in Atlanta, GA, where she completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in Human Health and Mathematics in 2018 and her Master of Public Health degree in Epidemiology in 2020. Natalie’s research interests include Chronic Disease, Nutrition, and Maternal and Child Health.

In Atlanta, Natalie collaborated with colleagues at the Emory Prevention Research Center and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta to implement and evaluate the impact of a web-based tool called SurvivorLink on pediatric cancer survivorship. Natalie was also an Assistant Program Coordinator at the Department of Human Genetics at Emory where she explored the intersection between genetics, nutrition, and health education in managing patients with metabolic disorders such as PKU and MSUD that require lifelong medical nutrition therapy. A long-term goal of establishing self-management skills early among this patient population is to promote healthy pregnancy outcomes and prevent maternal PKU syndrome in which symptoms are similar to fetal alcohol syndrome for the newborn. In her thesis work, Natalie aligned her passion for working with children with environmental health and studied the association between prenatal exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), coined as “forever chemicals” and cardiometabolic risk in children.

Natalie is originally from Southern California and very excited to work with the EfC Initiative team to contribute to policy and social norm change to reduce and prevent child maltreatment among youth in her home state. Natalie loves the beach, volleyball, yoga, hiking, dogs, ice cream, hummus, and supporting her friends and family.