I am a biological anthropologist with a broad background in human biological variation with training in evolutionary theory, evolutionary medicine, ecological immunology, and human adaptability. I am interested in uncovering the reasons why some public health problems, such as anemia, are so pervasive despite decades of intervention efforts. I tend to draw on evolutionary and social theories to study these problems situated in ecological and cultural settings. I have investigated how women and children cope with nutritional and disease stress in harsh conditions of northern Kenya. More recently, I have investigated how human milk nutrient and immune content change (or not) when mothers are exposed to nutritional and disease stress, again in northern Kenya. I am involved in research characterizing how human milk immune content may respond when experimentally exposed to bacteria, and how this may differ between mother-infant dyads. I am also involved in research on the extent mild iron deficiency might decrease or exacerbate COVID-19 risk among healthcare workers in Nigeria. My research efforts also include making laboratory diagnostic techniques more useful for researchers without ready access to centralized labs.

This year, I am focused on teaching courses on campus, mentoring students, and publishing results from recently completed projects that aim to clarify some key biocultural processes that influence mother-infant health in the backdrop of climate change and increasingly unpredictable precipitation patterns.

- Evolutionary Nutritional Adaptations and COVID-19 Risk among Healthcare Workers. (PI: Katherine Wander, Binghamton U)

- Effects of household composition on infant feeding and mother-infant health in northern Kenya (Student PI: Amulya Vankayalapati)

- Selling livestock during drought increases mother-infant infection risks among Kenyan agropastoralists (with Bilinda Straight, Western Michigan U)

- Exploring the extent dietary diversity protects against folate deficiency among breastfeeding mothers amid drought and food shortage (with Ananyaa Asthana)

- Toward understanding how polycystic ovarian syndrome and its remedies influence women’s reproductive health. (with Allison Harkenrider)

- Exploring the link between maternal dietary diversity, human milk immune factors, and infant infection risk during drought (with Rachel Pham)

- Exploring how mothers' milk content may differ by marriage rules (with Natalie Morou)