She examines the disparate impacts of global climate change, sea level rise and other issues involving environmental justice.
[3] In addition she was a visiting scholar in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the University of California, Los Angeles.
[1] Cushing received an EPA STAR Graduate Fellowship (2012–2015) in support of her Ph.D. work, to examine health impacts of climate change and their relationship to race, ethnicity and class in Texas, from an environmental justice perspective.
[8] She is interested in analytical methods for epidemiological studies and in developing regulatory frameworks to reduce environmental health disparities.
[10] In 2020, Cushing and Jill E. Johnston reported on the potential health impacts on pregnant women of flaring in the Eagle Ford Shale of Texas.