About Us

Karen Alroy is a pursuing a doctorate in veterinary medicine and a masters in public health at Tufts University in Massachusetts.  Karen's research interests include disease ecology, epidemiology, and the health impacts of environmental change.  Her most recent research has focused on antibiotic resistant bacteria in wastewater and Herring Gulls of Cape Cod. Karen's background is in biomedical science, ecology and marine conservation genetics. When not studying in a café, Karen is walking in the woods, cooking up some vegetables, or laughing with friends.

Micah Hahn is a joint degree Ph.D. candidate in Environment & Resources and Population Health Sciences and an NSF IGERT Fellow at the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE) at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.  Micah studies environmental change and disease ecology.  She is currently working on a global disease risk map that integrates remote sensing information, health surveillance data, and socioeconomic risk factors to identify environmental determinants of infectious disease.  Micah completed her MPH in Global Environmental Health at Emory University where her research focused on designing a method for quantifying climate change vulnerability at the district level in Mozambique.  Micah also worked on the Water Team at CARE helping shape the Climate Change Strategy and integrate adaptation, ecosystem protection, and risk management into new water projects in East Africa.  Micah received a B.A. in Biology from Brandeis University.  As an undergraduate, Micah spent time working at an eye clinic in Orissa, India and studying abroad in Kenya.  Outside of school, Micah enjoys backpacking, triathlon training, playing soccer, learning to windsurf and sail, scouring flea markets and thrift stores, photography, traveling to far off places, and enjoying all that Madison has to offer. 

Jack Teng is a Phd candidate at the University of British Columbia. He is studying the infection risk to tick-borne diseases is influenced by different land uses.  As such, he spends most of his springs hunting for ticks and killing mice. Otherwise, he can be found generally outdoors, either climbing, hiking, swimming, or biking.

Coll Hutchison is interested in the links between human health, biocultural diversity and the natural world. He is currently doing a PhD at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), which aims to explore the relationships between Indigenous child health and wellbeing, biodiversity and ecological knowledge. His research focuses on the Mbya' Guarani in Misiones, Northern Argentina and is funded by the Natural Environmental Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council. In addition to his PhD, he is also involved in research relating to Malaria and pregnancy and assists with a work experience program, which focuses on Engaging Young People in Science. In his spare time he enjoys cooking, walking, reading, playing guitar and breakdancing, although not all at the same time.

Meredith Barrett is currently a PhD student in the Program in Ecology at Duke University, an interdisciplinary program between the Nicholas School of the Environment and the Biology Department at Duke. Her research interests originally focused on wildlife disease ecology, but have grown to address the interconnectedness of wildlife, ecosystem and human health with a One Health perspective. More specifically, she is investigating how environmental factors and human development around protected areas influence lemur health throughout Madagascar. She hopes this research will assist both conservation and public health planning in Madagascar in the future (fieldwork blog). She is conducting this work in collaboration with he St. Louis Zoo's Wildcare Institute, the Duke Lemur Center and the Madagascar Fauna Group. To further her connection with global health issues, Meredith also co-coordinates the Duke Global Health Working Group and is involved with the One Health Intellectual Exchange group, both of which bring students from several disciplines from Duke, UNC and NC State together to learn about and discuss local and global health issues. In her spare time Meredith enjoys being outside-- running, hiking, biking, gardening and traveling.

Timmy Bouley is currently a medical student at Duke University. Primarily he is interested in how anthropogenic climate change is impacting human health -- and in particular, how environmental change will impact biodiversity and ecosystems that are relevant to bio/medical-technology. He is also involved in the University Allied for Essential Medicines movement to secure equal access to healthcare and medicines for global populations. Prior to medical school, Timmy worked in documentary film production, as a bioethics researcher, and obtained a master's degree in religion and bioethics at Harvard. In 2009-2010 Timmy will be pursuing an MSc in Environmental Change and Management at Oxford. When not in the hospital, a library, or a cafe, Timmy enjoys running long distances in the woods, climbing rocks, ocean swims, drinking Sonoma Cabernet's (out of the bottle) around a campfire, and eating 54-85% cacao chocolate. 

Brettania Lopes is a PhD student in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill where she is focusing on infectious diseases. Brettania received a Bachelor's degree in biology from George Mason University; a graduate certificate in international health policy and a MPH degree in environmental and occupational health from The George Washington University. Brettania's Master's thesis research was done in Brazil where she studied maternal parasitic infections and infant health outcomes. After earning her Master's degree, Brettania spent 2 years in Europe studying how global chemical use and environmental contamination affect human and wildlife health in the Arctic region. Brettania is currently interested in studying associations between land-use change, climate change and infectious diseases in general but especially in the Brazilian Amazon region. Brettania is also interested in studying how ecosystem changes affect the health of both wildlife and humans.  In her free time, Brettania likes to travel to Brazil with her husband, visit family, horseback ride, and hike.

Nico Preston recently completed a Ph.D. in Limnology and Marine Science (UW-Madison) on carbon cycling and the influence of climate variability on aquatic organisms. He is currently a postdoc at the UW-Madison Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE), where he is developing web applications for mapping and analyzing the environmental determinants of infectious disease emergence and resurgence. He is interested in topics combining ecology, health, and computing, particularly if they involve water. When not in the office he enjoys being a disaster response volunteer, natural history, ski patrol, hiking with the dog, and playing ice hockey.

Nikkita Patel is a joint degree VMD and PhD (Epidemiology) candidate at University of Pennsylvania. She received a BS from the University of Tennessee and an MPH in Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases from Yale. Before starting her current program, she worked at the Consortium for Conservation Medicine at Wildlife Trust studying anthropogenic factors driving emerging infectious diseases in humans, animals, and plants. She is interested in conservation, public health, and environmental health implications of the human-animal interface. She enjoys spending free time traveling with her husband.

Katie Haman is a DVM candidate at the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine. Katie is most interested in health of marine wildlife and the role of the environment, foraging ecology, and habitat use on the health and disease ecology in wildlife (both terrestrial and marine) populations. Katie is collaborating with the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on an ongoing project to provide health assessments of free-ranging sharks off of the coast of Georgia and Florida. In addition, she is working at the Southeast Cooperative for Wildlife Disease Study (SCWDS) to investigate the newly emerging White Nose Syndrome in bats. When not cramming information into her brain or working at SCWDS, Katie enjoys hiking with her two dogs, going for long bike rides, gardening, and just spending as much time as possible outside. 

Patrick Suykerbuyk is completing his doctoral thesis at the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp (ITMA) and the University of Antwerp (UA). He has a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and a B.S. & MS in Biomedical Sciences, but he is a disease ecologist and field worker pur sang. For his PhD, Patrick is exploring the disease ecology of Mycobacterium ulcerans, the causal agent of a neglected tropical skin infection, currently known as Buruli ulcer disease. Since 2002, he has conducted several field studies in remote areas in Benin (West Africa) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (Central Africa). Beside his field and lab research activities, Patrick spends a lot of time in capacity building in the South. Furthermore, he teaches part-time biology and chemistry at a secondary school since 2010. In his spare time, he is an active rugby player/fanatic and enjoys the company of his wife and 15 months old son.

Kristi Shaw is a Ph.D. candidate in Biological Oceanography at University of Maryland. She worked as a marine science researcher for Maryland's Dept. of Natural Resources and the University of Maryland while completing her BS at Salisbury University. She earned a Master of Health Science in Environmental Health from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, where she focused on water and human health. Kristi draws from both her public health and her marine science experience in pursuing the discipline of Oceans and Human Health. Her dissertation research focuses on bacterial and viral pathogens in the Chesapeake Bay. Kristi enjoys spending time with her husband and infant daughter, as well as training for triathlons and teaching yoga.