Kerry Ard is an Associate Professor of Environmental and Natural Resource Sociology in theSchool of Environment and Natural Resources at The Ohio State University. Her research examines the relationship between policy decisions and health and well-being, with particular focus on environmental inequality, air toxic exposure, and the social determinants of health. Using spatial multilevel modeling and GIS-integrated longitudinal data, Ard has documented how marginalized communities disproportionately bear toxic burdens and how policy structures shape health outcomes across communities. Her work has appeared in Science Advances, Health Affairs, Toxicological Sciences, Review of PolicyResearch, and other leading journals, and has been funded by the EPA, NIH, and NSF. Ard has presented research to the U.S. Senate Climate Task Force—with findings cited on theSenate floor—and was selected as one of two global winners of the Google Earth KMLResearch Competition.She was recently elected chair of the Environmental Sociology section of the American Sociological Association and secretary of the Environment and Society Research Committee for the International Sociological Association.In 2025 she was awarded the only Mid-Career Award given from the National ScienceFoundationDirectorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences in Sociology.