People
Sagan Friant - Principal Investigator
College of Liberal Arts Endowed Fellow &
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
a co-hire of Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences
Pennsylvania State University
Affiliations: Ecology Institute & Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics
email: sagan.friant@psu.edu
Twitter: @saganfriant
I am an integrative anthropologist studying the health consequences of human-animal-environment interactions. My research primarily takes place in Nigeria, where I have worked for over 15 years. I am the founder and Director of the Cross River Ecology and Health Project Inc. and also lead several additional projects focused on zoonotic spillover. Through research and related programs I aim to identify and implement solutions that provide win wins for food, environmental, and global health security.
Postdoctoral Scholars
Katharine "Kate" Thompson is an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Penn State. She holds a BA in Anthropology and BS in Community, Environment, and Development from Penn State, and an MA and PhD in Anthropology from Stony Brook University. Her research focuses on human-wildlife interactions and natural resource use as resilience strategies for indigenous communities. At the RISK Lab, Kate uses mixed-methods approaches to study wild meat value chains and human-rodent interactions in the context of disease risk and food security in Nigeria.
David Simons, PhD, MD
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The Pennsylvania State University
email: dzs2659@psu.edu
Twitter: @David_Simons_UK
website: www.dsimons.org
David Simons is a postdoctoral scholar working on the SCAPES project. His PhD examined the association between land use and rodent ecology and downstream effects on Lassa fever risk in Eastern Sierra Leone. Drawing on methods from ecology, epidemiology, and medicine, his work adopts One Health approaches to understand zoonotic spillover risk from rodent hosts to humans in West Africa. Prior to research, David worked as a medical doctor in infectious diseases and emergency medicine.
Graduate students
Christian Herrera
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Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Biosciences
The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences
The Pennsylvania State University
Affiliations: Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics & Department of Anthropology
email: ceh364@psu.edu​
Christian Herrera is a PhD candidate in the Immunology and Infectious Disease track of the Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Biosciences program at Penn State. His research applies metagenomics tools to assess emerging infectious disease risks from bushmeat handling in Nigeria. Christian holds an MS in Biotechnology from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and a BS in Biology from Angelo State University, and is concurrently completing an MBA at Penn State.
Christina Harden, MPH​
Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Ecology
The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences
The Pennsylvania State University
website: xtinaharden.carrd.co
email: cmh7042@psu.edu
Christina Harden is a PhD student and J. Lloyd Huck Graduate Fellow in the Ecology Program at Penn State. She holds a BS in Environmental Science from Cornell University and an MPH in Epidemiology from Yale School of Public Health. Her research with the SCAPES Project uses a mixed-methods approach to understand human-rodent contact and Lassa fever risk in Nigeria, integrating community-based participatory research with ecological methods to reveal the socioecological dynamics driving zoonotic disease risk.
Matthew Keenan​
Department of Anthropology
The Pennsylvania State University
email: mrk5708@psu.edu
Matthew Keenan is a PhD student in Anthropology at Penn State. His research examines zoonotic disease spillover risk in North America as mediated by human hunting practices. Prior to joining the RISK Lab, he developed geospatial products on bushmeat trade in West Africa and conducted analysis on human-rodent interactions. He also has field experience in archaeological research in the American Southeast and ethnographic research with Martu communities in Australia
Kelly Schenk is a PhD student in Anthropology at Penn State. Her research examines how landscape use shapes human-rodent interactions and zoonotic disease spillover risk. She holds a BA in Anthropology and an MPH in Infectious Disease and Microbiology from the University of Pittsburgh, where her thesis investigated tickborne pathogen prevalence across urban, suburban, and rural landscapes in southwest Pennsylvania. Prior to her PhD, Kelly was a CSTE Applied Epidemiology Fellow at the Minnesota Department of Health's Zoonotic Diseases Unit and epidemiologist at the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
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Field Research Assistants
Wilfred Akonjom Ayambem
University of Calabar
Alobi Obaji Alobi
University of Calabar
Nzube Michael Ifebueme
University of Calabar
Oshama Maria Okoi
University of Calabar
Helen Ignatius
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Fisayomi Aderbigbe
RISK Lab Alumni
Metrey Tiv, MD
postdoctoral scholar
current position: PhD student at Durham University
Grace Lemke
Undergraduate Research Honors Student (Biology, Anthropology and Spanish)
Emma Petrick
Undergraduate Research Honors Student (majors: Anthropology and Spanish)
Se Morrison
Undergraduate Research Honors Student (Anthropology, History, and Classics & Ancient Mediterranean Studies)