Biography

Dr. Rowland received a BA in health and society from the University of Pennsylvania in 1976, an MA in sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1986, and a PhD in epidemiology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1992. He completed his postdoctoral training at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) in 1994 and worked as a member of the Reproductive Epidemiology Branch at NIEHS before joining UNM in 2001.

After receiving his Master’s degree Dr. Rowland worked at the Labor Occupational Health Project in the Institute of Industrial Relations at U.C. Berkeley where he helped document the hazards faced by minority workers. He then worked for three years in Occupational Health Branch of the New Jersey Department of Health where he worked on investigations of asbestos exposure in State Maintenance Workers and on documenting the potential hazards in the chemical industry. At NIEHS, Dr. Rowland worked on studies of female dental assistants exposed to nitrous oxide and mercury vapor, of farmworkers chronically exposed to pesticides, on the British AlSPAC pregnancy study, and on the Agricultural Health study, a study of the impact of pesticides on the health of farmers in Iowa and North Carolina. In 1998 he began the Johnston County ADHD study a study of all the elementary school children in one NC county to estimate the prevalence and risk factors for ADHD.

Areas of Specialty

  • Perinatal Epidemiology
  • Psychiatric Epidemiology and children’s mental health
  • ADHD
  • Neuro-Epidemiology

Key Publications

Rowland AS, Baird DD, Weinberg CR, Shore DL, Shy CM, Wilcox, AJ. Reduced fertility among women employed as dental assistants exposed to high levels of nitrous oxide. The New England Journal of Medicine, 327:993-997, 1992.

Davis ME, Rowland AS, Walker B Jr., and Taylor AK: "Minority workers" In Wegman DH, and Levy BS. (eds.): Occupational Health: Recognizing and Preventing Work-Related Disease, 3rd edition, Boston, Little Brown, 1995:639-649.

Rowland AS, Baird DD, Shore DL, Weinberg CR, Savitz DA, Wilcox AJ. Nitrous oxide and spontaneous abortion in female dental assistants. American Journal of Epidemiology, 141:531-8, 1995

Rowland AS, Umbach DM, Stallone, L, Naftel AJ, Bohlig EM, Sandler DP. Prevalence of Medication treatment for attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) among elementary school children, Johnston County N.C. Am J of Public Health. 92: 231-234, 2002

Dosemeci M, Alavanja MCR, Rowland AS, Mage D, Zahm SH, Rothman N, Lubin JH, Hoppin JA, Sandler DP, Blair A. A quantitative approach for estimating exposure to pesticides in the agricultural health study. Annals of Occupational Hygiene.;46 245-260, 2002

Rowland AS, Baird DD, Long S, Wegienka G, Harlow SD, Alavanja MCR, Sandler DP, Medical conditions and lifestyle factors are associated with menstrual cycle characteristics. Epidemiology; 13:668-674, 2002

Rowland AS, Lesesne CA, Abramowitz AJ. The epidemiology of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): a public health view. Mental Retardation Developmental Disabilities Research Reviews; 8:162-70, 2002

Kamel F, Rowland AS, Park LP, Anger WK, Baird DD, Gladen BC, Moreno T, Stallone L, Sandler DP. Neurobehavioral performances and work experience in Florida farmworkers. Environmental Health Perspectives. 111:1765-1772, 2003

Daniels JL, Rowland AS, Longnecker MP, Golding J and the ALSPAC Study Team. Maternal dental history, child's birth outcome and early cognitive development. Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology. 21:448-457, 2007

Rowland AS, Skipper, B., Rabiner DL, Umbach DM., Stallone L, Campbell RA, Hough RL., Naftel AJ, Sandler DP. The Shifting subtypes of ADHD: classification depends on how symptom reports are combined. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 36: 731-743, 2008

Bakhireva, LN, Rowland, AS, Young, BN, Cano, S, Phelan, ST, Artyushkova, K, et al. Sources of potential lead exposure among pregnant women in New Mexico. Matern Child Health J, 17(1), 172-179, 2013

Rowland AS, Skipper, B., Rabiner DL, Umbach DM., Campbell RA, Naftel AJ, Sandler DP. The prevalence of ADHD in a population sample. J Atten Disord. 2015 Sep;19(9):741-54.

Gordon PH, Mehal JM, Holman RC, Bartholomew ML, Cheek JE, Rowland AS. Incidence and prevalence of Parkinson’s disease among Navajo People living in the Navajo Nation. Mov Disord. 2015 Apr 15;30(5):714-20.

Rowland AS, Skipper BJ, Rabiner DL, Quedan F, Campbell RA, Naftel AJ, Umbach DM. ADHD: Interaction between socioeconomic status and parental history of ADHD determines prevalence. Journal Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 2018 Mar;59(3):213-222.

Campbell RA, Gorman S, Thoma RJ, Annett RD, McGrew C, Yeo R, Mayer AR, King J, Rowland AS. Risk of Concussion during Sports and Physical Education among New Mexico Middle and High School Students. American Journal of Public Health. 2018 Jan;108(1):93-95.

Research

At NIEHS, Dr. Rowland worked on studies of female dental assistants exposed to nitrous oxide and mercury vapor, of farmworkers chronically exposed to pesticides, on the British AlSPAC pregnancy study, and on the Agricultural Health study, a study of the impact of pesticides on the health of farm families in Iowa and North Carolina. In 1998 he began the Johnston County ADHD study of all elementary school children in one North Carolina county to estimate the prevalence and risk factors for ADHD.

In 2005, Dr. Rowland received an R01 from the National Institute of Mental Health to follow the original Johnston County ADHD cohort.  At UNM, he has been a co-investigator on the National Children’s study, a co-investigator on a series of studies of Parkinson’s Disease and other neurologic diseases among the Navajo, and a study of sports-related head injury among New Mexico Middle and High School students.  He is currently working with the New Mexico Department of Health on a study of risk and resilience factors for New Mexico two-year-olds and with the UNM Department of Pharmacy Inspires grant to study the impact of emerging environmental contaminants in New Mexico.

Courses Taught

Dr. Rowland has been teaching in both the BSPH, MPH, and PhD programs. Dr. Rowland was a member of the UNM Student Experience project, a national project with six universities to make learning more inclusive for underserved student populations. Dr. Rowland has taught Introduction to Population Health and Population Health Research Methods. He is currently teaching Perinatal Epidemiology and Mental Health Epidemiology in the MPH program, and Survey Methods in the PhD program.

  • Perinatal Epidemiology and Mental Health Epidemiology (MPH)
  • Survey Methods (PhD)