What We Research

Kelly K. Baker’s research aims to ensure young children globally are born healthy and grow and develop protected from malnutrition and infectious diseases. Lack of access to basic needs, like clean water and food, sanitation and wastewater systems, and housing places low-income families and communities at higher risk for adverse birth outcomes and infectious diseases, making this an environmental justice issue.

Unhygienic living conditions also cause infections in domestic companion and food production animals, facilitating transmission of zoonotic diseases between humans and their animals. Increases in severe weather events like flooding and drought fueled by climate change make prevention of these environmental and zoonotic issues even more difficult.

Baker’s work focuses upon identifying climate-resilient infrastructural, social, and public health interventions that protect the health all children from birth through early childhood alongside and through the protection of animal and ecological health.

Her current projects include:

• Global development, urban flooding, and diarrheal disease in Kenya
• Drought, rurality, and foodborne disease and malnutrition in Ethiopia
• Flooding, drought and well water microbial pollution in Iowa
• Seasonality, human and animal movement, and guinea worm ecology in Ethiopia
• Water insecurity, gender, and maternal and child health in India
• Rapid point-of-care diagnostics for waterborne diseases in Bangladesh, Kenya, and Iowa

• Yamamoto, S.S., Lowe, S., Denier, N., Pabayo, R., Wu, H., St. Dennis, F., (2023-2024), LGBTQIA+ Communities and Climate Change: An Exploratory Study. Canadian Institutes for Health Research.
• Yamamoto, S.S. (PI), Denier, N., Lowe, S., Pabayo, R., Wu, H., St. Dennis, F., (2023-2024), Understanding the Perceptions and Health Impacts of Climate Change among LGBTQIA+ People in Alberta: A Mixed- Methods Pilot Study. Canadian Institutes for Health Research.
• Yamamoto, S.S. (PI), Bulut, O., Jones, A., Liang, H., Osornio Vargas, A., Salma, J., Whitfield, K., (2022-2023), Preparing cities for climate change. Canadian Institutes for Health Research.
• Yamamoto, S.S. (PI), Osornio Vargas, A., Jones, A., Bulut, O., Hanson, W., Lavigne, E., Randall, J., Salma, J., Stieb, D., Svenson, L., Voaklander, D., N. Yiannakoulias, N., Read, A., Sharpe, H., Turtiak, M., (2020-2024), Climate change surveillance for chronic health effects in populations. Public Health Agency of Canada.

Learn more about CHEER, the Climate Health and Environment Epidemiology Research Lab.

Kristen Cowan’s research investigates how social systems, and environmental hazards interact to shape health disparities, with a focus on climate change and disasters. Her work aims to identify and address the underlying drivers of vulnerability to climate-related health impacts, especially among incarcerated populations, minoritized communities, and people with chronic illnesses or limited resources.

Kristen Cowan uses methods from environmental epidemiology and social epidemiology to measure how exposure to extreme heat, wildfire smoke, flooding, hurricanes and other disasters influence health outcomes. She also evaluates how social policies and infrastructure influence the distribution of environmental risks and how we can reduce health inequities in the face of worsening climate events.

Her current projects include:

• Wildfire smoke exposure and poor health outcomes among incarcerated people in California
• Utility burden, extreme heat, and birth outcomes in the United States
• Structural barriers in disaster preparedness for incarcerated populations
• Development of an improved vulnerability index for climate hazards 
• Assessment of extreme heat metrics in epidemiology studies