Dr. Laura Beane Freeman is the Principal Investigator of the ELEA Study. Her interest in agricultural exposures and their potential effects on human health are longstanding as she grew up on a farm in Central Iowa, where her family raised corn, soybeans, and cattle. Dr. Beane Freeman received her PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Iowa in 2003 and is a Senior Investigator in the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). She is the NCI Principal Investigator of the Agricultural Health Study, a cohort of 89,000 farmers and their spouses in Iowa and North Carolina that has been followed for >30 years. In addition to her research program in pesticides and other agricultural exposures, she studies other occupational and environmental exposures including drinking water contaminants and industrial chemicals.

Dr. Andreotti is an Associate Scientist in the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch in the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics at the National Cancer Institute. In addition to her work on ELEA, she primarily works to support the Agricultural Health Study (AHS), a large cohort study of farmers. Her scientific work is primarily aimed at elucidating the mechanisms by which pesticides are related to cancer. Dr. Andreotti received her PhD in epidemiology from George Washington University in 2007. Upon graduation, she joined OEEB as a post-doctoral fellow and was promoted to Staff Scientist in 2010.

Dr. Paul Romitti is the Principal Investigator of the ELEA Study in Iowa. Dr. Romitti is a University of Iowa Distinguished Chair, Professor of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Toxicology and Director of the Iowa Registry for Congenital and Inherited Disorders. He received his PhD in Preventive Medicine (Epidemiology) from the University of Iowa in 1994 and, following postdoctoral training in Molecular Epidemiology, joined the faculty in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Iowa in 1998. Dr. Romitti is a long-time Iowa resident, having grown up in a small Central Iowa town. His research interests include health effects of agricultural, environmental, and occupational exposures among children and young adults, including genetic susceptibility to such exposures. His research is particularly focused on adverse birth outcomes associated with agricultural exposures.