Environmental Health
Toxic exposure & endocrine disruption
PFAS, heavy metals, and air pollution — how everyday environmental exposure shapes long-term disease risk, from NHANES cohorts to Dhaka's slum settlements.
Public health education
built with communities.
The Butterfly Project creates health education programs, community workshops, and field research initiatives for vulnerable urban and suburban communities across multiple countries.
501(c)(3) public charity · Florida HQ · Active across 11 countries
Florida HQ
headquarters, with staff active nationwide
11
countries in our research network
4
peer-reviewed publications, 2025–2026
20+
abstracts presented at APHA, 2024–2026
What We Do
We turn community needs into health education and evidence-based action.
Education & Orientation
We create and deliver health education programs in schools, universities, companies, and civil community groups.
Workshops & Talks
We lead talks, conferences, and experiential workshops that empower people with practical, trustworthy health information.
Community Research
Our field research strengthens our data and helps identify priorities in vulnerable urban and suburban communities.
Recommendations
We analyze findings and develop recommendations that contribute to better health outcomes for entire communities.
Research focus
Five threads, one goal: evidence people can act on.
Our investigators work across disciplines and geographies, but the questions we ask keep circling back to the same thing — what's making people sick, and what would actually help.
Chronic & Cardiometabolic Disease
Cardiovascular risk & multimorbidity
Diabetes, coronary heart disease, and clustering chronic conditions among aging and underserved populations in the US and South Asia.
Cancer & Women's Health
Detection gaps & reproductive health
Undiagnosed cancer, cervical cancer prevention, menstrual health, and the diagnostic gaps that leave disease caught too late.
Immunization & Health Policy
Vaccine access & cost-effectiveness
HPV vaccination uptake and cost-utility analysis, translating economic evidence into arguments for public immunization funding.
Health Equity & Systems
Antimicrobial resistance & access to care
Antibiotic self-medication, sanitation infrastructure, and institutional preparedness for underserved and disabled patients.
Social Determinants
Climate, wellbeing & social capital
Flood risk, economic populism, and social media's effect on wellbeing — the social and environmental context disease sits inside.
WHY THE BUTTERFLY
Because transformation begins with movement.
The monarch crosses borders with instinct and purpose. The Butterfly Project does the same through public health education, community research, and international collaboration.
From Florida to communities around the world, we carry one mission forward: turning knowledge into healthier lives.
Peer-reviewed publications
Recent findings from our research team.
A selection of our published work. Full text is available through each journal.
PFAS exposure and endocrine disruption among women
Ripon RK, Hossain J, Volquez M, Meda-Monzon E, Saunik S, Prasad N. JAMA Network Open. 2025;8(12).
Toxic metal exposure, functional limitation & cardiovascular disease among US adults
Ripon RK, Hossain MJ, Volquez M, et al. Discover Public Health. 2025;22:822.
Environmental exposure to emerging PFAS and cardiovascular disease: a mixture analysis
Ripon RK, Hassan MM, Volquez M, et al. Health Science Reports. 2026;9:e72556.
Cost-utility analysis of free HPV immunization for girls in Rajasthan, India
Munot S, Prasad N, Paudel R, Gaurav S, Saunik S, Paulino-Ramirez R, Ottoho E, Volquez M, Ripon RK, et al. Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation. 2026.
Global network
Research doesn't stop at a border.
Our collaborators span universities, hospitals, and public health institutes across four continents, working jointly on shared datasets and shared questions.
North America
South Asia
Latin America & Caribbean
North & East Africa
- Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Boston, MA — Dept. of Environmental Health Epidemiology
- Brigham and Women's Hospital Boston, MA
- Jahangirnagar University Dhaka, Bangladesh
- International Institute for Population Sciences Mumbai, India
- All India Institute of Medical Sciences Nagpur & Guwahati, India
- Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
- UNIBE Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
- Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala Guatemala City, Guatemala
- Manipal College of Medical Sciences Pokhara, Nepal
- University of Algiers Algiers, Algeria
- St. Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
- UT Southwestern Medical Center Miami / Dallas, TX
Research Leadership & Global Team
Behind The Butterfly Project is a leadership team and a global research network working across countries, institutions, and communities to turn evidence into public health action.
Project Directors
NP
Narayana Prasad, MD MPH MS
Director & Lead Investigator
Public Health Literacy / Brigham and Women's Hospital, Miami, FL
MV
Mayra Volquez, MS
Director, Research Operations
Public Health Literacy / UT Southwestern, Miami, FL
EM
Elizabeth Meda-Monzon, MPH
Director
Public Health Literacy / Pharmamanagement EAS De RL, Mexico City, Mexico
Global Research Team
Our research work is strengthened by investigators and collaborators across multiple regions, bringing local context, technical expertise, and shared commitment to public health.
Core research contributors
- Narayana — Director / Investigator
- Rezaul — DATA ANALYST DIRECTOR / Harvard T.H. Chan
- Sujata Saunik — Director, Health Policy / Takemi Fellow, Harvard University
- Mayra — Director / Investigator
- Elizabeth — Director / Investigator
Conference presence
Presented annually at APHA.
Our team has presented original research at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting each year since 2024 — covering environmental exposure, cardiometabolic disease, cancer detection, immunization, and health equity.
2024 meeting
5 abstracts presented
2025 meeting
2 abstracts presented
2026 meeting
11 abstracts presented
Topics
Environmental health, NCDs, cancer, immunization
Format
Oral sessions & poster boards
Nonprofit status
Recognized by the IRS as a public charity.
The Butterfly Project is a federally tax-exempt organization under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3). Contributions are tax-deductible.
Work with us
Your gift turns health education into action for communities that need it most.
Help us turn evidence into healthier communities. Whether you're a researcher, an institution, or a funder — there's a way to plug into the network.