I am a physician-scientist who is passionate about safeguarding human, animal, and planetary health. My current research focuses on globally emerging zoonotic and vector-borne diseases and pandemic preparedness. Clinically, I care for patients as an infectious disease fellow at Johns Hopkins. I also explore the medical humanities through my art and writing about the intersection of medicine and nature.
The overall goal of my research is to improve early detection and mitigation of zoonotic and vector-borne diseases. Using interdisciplinary planetary health and One Health approaches, I have designed projects to understand Ebola virus transmission and spillover events, prevent hospital-acquired infections of SARS-CoV-2, and help international policymakers prepare for yellow fever outbreaks. I have led projects in Latin America and Africa and collaborate with the NIH and CDC.
My initial career path began as an ecologist and conservation biologist. I found the intersection of human and wildlife health through researching bats and the diseases they carry. For my honors thesis at Stanford University, I studied the potential for disease spillover from bats in Costa Rica. My interest in the disease ecology of bats led me to the NIH/NIAID for a research fellowship with the Virus Ecology Section to study the ecology and evolution of ebolaviruses and coronaviruses. While I was working with the NIH, the largest epidemic of Ebola virus disease occurred in West Africa. In order to answer critical questions about the epidemic, I developed diagnostics to be used at Ebola treatment units and designed experiments to determine the stability of the outbreak strain in different environments, understand modes of Ebola virus transmission, and identify habits were other ebolaviruses may emerge.
My experiences researching infectious diseases led me to medical school at UCLA where I had the privilege to work with patients in diverse settings throughout Los Angeles. I also built off of my previous research to establish a project in Cameroon to make predictions of emerging zoonotic viruses more useful for national policymakers. Working in these different settings further developed my understanding of how both global and local environments influence our health. It also furthered my appreciation for the importance of strengthening healthcare systems and pandemic preparedness.
As a resident physician at the University of Washington I worked on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, caring for patients and conducting research to better understand transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and regional risk for COVID-19 in Africa. Desiring additional skills in emerging pathogens, modeling, and policy translation, I pursued infectious disease fellowship at Johns Hopkins, where I obtained my public health degree at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and was selected into the Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative (ELBI) class of 2024. During fellowship I also cared for patients with mpox and advanced HIV, furthering my motivation to improve outbreak preparedness.
These experiences have informed my research and clinical work, which focuses on developing tools that clinicians and policymakers can use to detect and mitigate emerging zoonotic and vector-borne diseases in the setting of global environmental change. Currently I am developing spatial models of yellow fever in Africa using machine learning and local data. These models can then be used by decision-makers to improve resource allocation.
Recent zoonotic and vector-borne disease epidemics continue to remind us how human, animal, and environmental health are connected. Multiple perspectives are necessary to solve these issues, and I look forward further collaborating on these problems both globally and locally.