Kassidy Houck

Director, PhD Representative

Kassidy is a second-year PhD student in Epidemiology from Oakdale,  California. She earned her B.S. in Biological Sciences from Arizona State University in 2023 and her MPH in Epidemiology from the University of Michigan in 2025. Her research interests include cancer epidemiology, cancer prevention, and women’s health, with a particular focus on gynecologic cancers and health disparities. She currently works as a graduate research assistant at the Iowa Cancer Registry, where she contributes to cancer surveillance and population-based research. Outside of academics, Kassidy enjoys hiking, traveling, and spending time with friends and family.

Joy Chioma Edeh

PhD Representative

Joy Chioma Edeh is a second-year PhD student in Epidemiology from Nigeria. She received her MBBS in 2016 and worked as a physician in private and public health settings. During this time, she contributed to maternal and child health initiatives as a member of the Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response Committee (MPDSR), collaborating with health professionals to address maternal and infant morbidity and mortality in low-resource settings.

She completed her Master of Science degree in Epidemiology at the University of Iowa in 2025. She was a student fellow with the American Public Health Association (APHA) Maternal and Child Health Section and the Iowa Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (ILEND) program. She is currently a research assistant with the Attachment and Neurodevelopment Lab, Stead Family Department of Pediatrics at the University of Iowa Health Care. Her research interests include maternal and child health, social determinants of health, and life-course epidemiology, with a particular interest in how maternal psychosocial and environmental exposures influence neurodevelopmental outcomes.

Mary McFetridge

MPH Representative

Mary is a second-year MPH student from Des Moines, Iowa. She earned her B.A. in Biology from Scripps College. Her interests focus on emerging infectious diseases and the impact the environment plays in disease circulation, both in a clinical and natural setting. She is especially interested in antibiotic resistance and healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). She is currently a graduate research assistant in Dr. Kathryn Dalton’s One Health Microbial Dynamics Lab at the University of Iowa. In her free time, Mary enjoys running, hiking, and traveling to new places with good coffee shops and bookstores.

Payal Vedanayagam

MPH Representative

Payal is a second-year MPH student in Epidemiology from Cedar Falls, Iowa. She earned her B.S. In Global Health Studies and a Public Health Certificate from the University of Iowa in 2025. Her academic interests include infectious disease, emergency preparedness, and the intersection of those two. She currently works as an Academic Research Associate in the Cortés Meno Lab under Dr. Yamnia Cortés at the College of Nursing. The overall goal of this project is to better understand the experience of the menopause transition among midlife Latinas. Outside of academics, she enjoys traveling, hiking, and spending time with animals.