Our Team

Emily is Distinguished Professor of the Practice in the Department of Epidemiology and leads multi-disciplinary studies on the transmission and prevention of emerging and vaccine preventable diseases, such as Nipah virus, hepatitis E virus, and arboviruses. She has worked in Bangladesh for more than a decade and her interests include improving the communication and collaboration between field epidemiologists and infectious disease modelers and development of novel surveillance strategies. Her research adopts a One Health approach to the study and prevention of infectious disease, taking into account the ecological context in which human disease occurs. Emily is the Co-Director for the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) site in Bangladesh, aiming to determine the etiology of and prevent child deaths. She serves on the Lancet Commission for Preventing Viral Spillover and on the Board of Directors for the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH).

Dr. Melissa A. Marx is an Associate Professor in the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is an expert in epidemiology and evaluation who specializes in developing, disseminating and utilizing new metrics and methods to evaluate and improve international programs, focusing on maternal, neonatal, child health and nutrition and HIV, TB and malaria in low and middle income settings. Dr. Marx is committed to building sustainable capacity in the analysis and use of routine data for program improvement and has developed and evaluated learner-focused training programs for students and public health practitioners to move that agenda forward. While at CDC as an EIS officer and in the Zambia field office, she developed, conducted, and oversaw outbreak investigations and epidemiologic studies on HIV, Ebola, zoonotic transmission of anthrax, typhoid fever, cholera, food-borne illness, Hepatitis B and C, STIs, and drug resistant organisms including MRSA, among others.

Kyle is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering. He earned his PhD from the Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2022 and holds an MPH degree with a focus in epidemiology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Kyle is interested in the effect climate change has on infectious disease dynamics, and he uses spatial statistics and analysis, remote sensing, and data science techniques to study extreme weather events and infectious respiratory virus transmission.

Tom Carpino is a doctoral candidate in Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. As a predoctoral NIH fellow, he researches stigma, HIV, and STIs in sexual and gender diverse communities. He is a member of the Center for Public Health and Human Rights, and his dissertation research characterizes the epidemiology of mpox and other STIs. Prior to Hopkins, he earned an MPH from Columbia University in biostatistics and was a co-investigator on projects related to Covid-19, HIV, climate change, and health systems.

Mary de Boer is a second-year PhD student in the Department of International Health’s Program in Human Nutrition.  She has been a USAID Foreign Service Officer since 2011 and has served in that role in Kyrgyzstan, Rwanda, Senegal, and Washington, D.C.  She has also previously worked with the National Cancer Institute’s Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities, the MEA Foundation in Buguruni, Tanzania, and did her MSc research on the social representations of childbearing in Ganta, Liberia.  Her research interests include program evaluation, implementation science, and maternal and young child nutrition in low- and middle-income country contexts.

Katie is a PhD Student in the Department of International Health studying Global Disease Epidemiology and Control track. She is interested in infectious disease epidemiology, mortality surveillance, and increasing the use and integration of routinely collected data from human, animal, and environmental sectors to inform public health decision-making. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins, she received an MS in Global Health and an undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering. Her previous work at The MITRE Corporation and at USAID with the President’s Malaria Initiative focused on vector-borne diseases, case management, adolescent sexual health programs, and COVID-19 testing programs in the United States.

Dr. Banda Khalifa is a Public Health Physician and a PhD student at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, with a focus on Infectious Disease Epidemiology. His research interests lie in emerging infections and global health security. Dr. Khalifa actively contributes to the field through rigorous analysis and policy development. He holds a dual MPH and MBA from Johns Hopkins University, which forms the basis of his strategic approach to public health challenges. As the President of the Epidemiology Student Organization and a member of the Johns Hopkins University-wide PhD Students Advisory Committee, he spearheads initiatives that strengthen epidemiological training and research. Dr. Khalifa's commitment to enhancing health system responses to infectious disease threats is demonstrated through his collaborative work with both international and local health authorities. Integrating his clinical insights with robust epidemiological data, Dr. Khalifa is dedicated to advancing the understanding and management of infectious diseases and improving preparedness and response capabilities within health systems.

Katie is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering. She earned an MPH degree with a focus in infectious diseases and vaccinology from UC Berkeley in 2020. She is interested in One Health approaches to infectious disease spread and how the human-environment interface can impact infectious diseases. Katie’s dissertation research looks at respiratory pathogen immunity among neighbors and workers in high density industrial livestock operation areas. At Berkeley, Katie worked on a study that examined the effects of economic and WASH determinants on the carriage of antimicrobial resistant E. coli in children.

Liz, a doctoral student in the Department of Epidemiology, holds a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Puerto Rico. Her professional journey has been marked by a multifaceted career, including roles as research coordinator, COVID-19 contact tracing city director, and quantitative analyst. Liz's research interests focus on the dynamics of social networks, particularly among people who inject drugs, and their impact on infectious disease transmission.

Ashley is a PhD student in the Department of Health, Behavior, and Society. Her work focuses on the health of people experiencing homelessness and public health governance. Prior to Hopkins, Ashley worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where she led the Homelessness Unit in the agency’s COVID-19 Emergency Response. She led field deployments for COVID-19 outbreak investigations in homeless shelters and migrant decompression shelters and provided virtual support for mpox case investigation in correctional facilities. Ashley hopes to make social and behavioral sciences a core component of every outbreak response and integrate social conditions into public health surveillance. She received her MPH in Global Health and a Certificate in Religion and Health from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health and Candler School of Theology.

Becky is a PhD student in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering. She also completed her MHS in Epidemiology at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, with a focus on Environmental Epidemiology, and worked on several asthma, COPD, and COVID-19 studies as a research assistant in the clinic and in the field. She is broadly interested in quantifying the spatial epidemiology of climate change and public health outcomes such as heat-related death and vector-borne diseases.

Zachary Smith (he/him) is a PhD student in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering on the Exposure Sciences and Environmental Epidemiology track, and a trainee in the Johns Hopkins Education and Research Center for Occupational Safety and Health. His research focuses on the health effects of climate change and using epidemiologic methods and exposure science to inform public health decision-making. Prior to starting doctoral studies, he was the Tuberculosis Controller and Epidemiologist for the State of Delaware Division of Public Health. He also worked at the National Association of County and City Health Officials and the American Institutes for Research. He received a Master of Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley and a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from American University.

Steven is a doctoral student in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering. Prior to Johns Hopkins, he received his MSPH in Environmental Health and Engineering from Emory University and completed an infectious disease epidemiology fellowship with the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists at the New York State Department of Health. While at the New York State Department of Health, he assisted with outbreaks of measles, cyclosporiasis, and COVID-19. Steven is interested in WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) in low-resource settings and community-based climate resiliency. He is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Indonesia, and is constantly searching for authentic Indonesian food in the US.

Margaret is a PhD student in the Department of Environmental Health & Engineering on the Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology track; and a trainee in the Occupational Epidemiology and Biomarkers Program at the Johns Hopkins Education and Research Center for Occupational Safety and Health. Her research is focused on the use of electronic health records data for environmental and occupational epidemiology. Before starting at Hopkins, she worked in Central Appalachia doing community-based public health work, teaching public health at The University of Virginia’s College at Wise, and as the Director of the Black Lung Clinic Program in Virginia. She completed her MSPH in Tropical Medicine and Parasitology at Tulane and a graduate certificate in Appalachian Studies at Radford University.

Ha Truong is a PhD Epidemiology student studying infectious diseases at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is interested in HIV research, public health practice and infectious disease surveillance, mental health, and violence prevention. Prior to Hopkins, she earned her MPH in Global Epidemiology at Emory University, focusing on HIV prevention research for women at high risk for HIV in Zambia. As an epidemiologist, she supported community health programs for chronic disease prevention and HIV/STI surveillance for American Indian/Alaskan Native communities in the Great Lakes region. As a Global Health Fellow on the Clinical Surveillance and Epidemiology Team under the Division of Global HIV and TB in Atlanta, Georgia, Ha provided technical assistance to countries in the implementation of various clinical surveillance systems, primarily HIV recent infection surveillance, and deployed to the COVID-19 emergency task force.

Connor is a doctoral student in the Department of Health, Behavior and Society and Cancer Epidemiology, Prevention, and Control T32 Predoctoral Fellow. Prior to Johns Hopkins, he received his MPH from Brown University. Connor’s research interests have revolved around addressing health disparities that impact gender and sexual minority communities. He is currently working on addressing disparities at the intersection(s) of HIV, aging, and cancer among men who have sex with men and has been researching advancements in HIV/AIDS care (e.g., injectable PrEP). Moreover, he is interested in the application of implementation science and mixed-methods methodology to improve health outcomes for the LGBTQ+ community.