Dr. Hasibe Caballero-Gómez

Dr. Hasibe Caballero-Gómez is a Waverley Street Foundation Postdoctoral Scholar at the USC Equity Research Institute. She is an environmental health scientist dedicated to engaging environmental justice organizations and local communities in research that documents systemic environmental inequities while imagining pathways for healthier, empowered, and climate-resilient neighborhoods. Hasibe completed her Ph.D. in Environmental Health Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her doctoral work examined the disproportionate effects of rising temperatures on heat-vulnerable populations and high-exposure communities, analyzing how existing housing infrastructure mediates climate risk and can be adapted to mitigate heat-health outcomes and disparities. Her broader research agenda centers on community insights and visions to explore climate-related exposures and identify modifications to the built environment that can transform community health and quality of life.

Born in Honduras and raised in the San Fernando Valley, she’s driven by her lived experiences with both environmental degradation and community ingenuity in the face of systemic inequities. Empowered by the potential for environmental health research to reveal and address root causes of health inequities, her work aims to elevate and act upon the environmental realities folks live through day-to-day. She’s additionally interested in efforts towards biocultural restoration and urban forestry as avenues towards climate equity.

Publications

• Caballero-Gómez, Hasibe, Qi Meng, Jennifer Brady, Frederick J. Zimmerman, and Lara J. Cushing “From Neighbourhoods to Housing: Heat Exposure Disparities among Pregnant Parents and Preterm Births in Los Angeles County.” Environmental Research: Health. https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5309/ae9f8a/
• Morello-Frosch, Rachel, Hasibe Caballero-Gómez, Monika Shankar, and Lara J. Cushing “Forging Just Futures: A Path from Climate Crisis to Climate Solutions.” Annual Review of Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-071723-040657
• Caballero-Gómez, Hasibe, Jill Johnston, Chandra L. Jackson, Lizette Romano, and Lara J. Cushing “Ambient and Bedroom Heat in Relation to Sleep Health in a Marginalized Community That is One of the Hottest in Los Angeles.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22091391
• Cushing, Lara J., Hasibe Caballero-Gómez, Stephanie M. Eick, Ana C. Pelegrini Guimaraes, Nicholas J. Depsky, Erin DeMicco, Jue Lin, Tracey J. Woodruff, and Rachel Morello-Frosch. “Neighborhood build environment, psychosocial stressors, and telomere length of birth parents and their newborns from San Francisco, California.” Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-025-00797-9
• Caballero-Gómez, Hasibe, Helen K. White, Michael J. O’Shea, Richard Pepino, Marilyn Howarth, and Reto Gieré “Spatial Analysis and Lead-Risk Assessment of Philadelphia, USA.” Geohealth. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GH000519