Growing up, Dr. Sanderson worked on his family’s grain and cattle farms in Graves and Carlisle Counties, Kentucky. He and his wife Karen manage a small farm near Lexington, Kentucky. He knows firsthand the many demographic, economic, psycho-social, and health and safety issues facing farm-rural families. Dr. Sanderson is an instructional and research leader in the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment and the College of Public Health, and is collaborator with faculty in several other colleges and universities. In 2017, Dr. Sanderson moved from serving as Deputy Director of Southeast Center for Agricultural Health and Injury Prevention (SCAHIP) to become the Director. Previously, Dr. Sanderson was the Director of the University of Iowa’s NIOSH-funded Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health and Director of the University of Iowa’s Industrial Hygiene Core training program within the Heartland ERC. From 1978 to 2002, Dr. Sanderson worked for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) as a research Industrial Hygienist and Epidemiologist for the Division of Respiratory Disease Studies in Morgantown, West Virginia and the Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies in Cincinnati, Ohio--culminating with his position as Chief of the Industrial Hygiene Section in the Industrywide Studies Branch.

With his extensive industrial hygiene and epidemiology experience, especially in occupational exposures and health and injury risks, Dr. Sanderson coordinates all aspects of the CARERC. He recruits and advises students, leads courses and seminars, and is a mentor to students as they complete their thesis and dissertation research projects. Dr. Sanderson leads both curriculum development and faculty recruitment. The research projects of his many students cover a very broad range of topics including epidemiology, exposure assessment, and risk assessment.