Title(s): Assistant Professor
Department: Occupational and Environmental Health
Office: S316 CPHB
Phone: (319) 384-4008
Sanitation and clean water are often taken for granted in industrialized countries, but Kelly Baker understands why they mean the difference between life and death.
Travels to slums in India, where entire communities have no toilet, and poverty-stricken areas of Africa, where sewage is dumped directly in the ocean and travels upstream to fishing waters, are among the places where Baker has witnessed the complex issues first-hand. She was recruited to the University of Iowa for her global health expertise as part of a water and sustainability cluster hire of 10 faculty members in a variety of departments.
“I love what I do,” Baker said of her work in global health. “It can be draining and depressing at times, but I feel like I’m part of a process in creating a better world. It is very rewarding.”
Learn more about Dr. Baker at this profile…
Courses Taught
- Global Water and Health
- Global Public Health
Research Interests
- Global maternal and child health
- Water, sanitation, and hygiene
- Ecology and evolution of enteric disease transmission: the human-environment-microbial system interface
- Environmental microbiology and exposure assessment
- Evaluation of global health and development interventions
- Life course epidemiology
Background
Affiliations
- Assistant Professor UI College of Public Health, Department of Occupational and Environmental Health
- Secondary Appointment, Assistant Professor UI College of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology
- Faculty, Sustainable Water Development Program, UI College of Engineering
- Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases, University of Iowa
- Faculty, Antimicrobial Resistance Consortium
- Committee Member, National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine Board of Global Health
In the News
- Can studying sewage reveal COVID-19 outbreaks?
- Baker appointed to national global health panel
- Study examines how water access and sanitation affect birth outcomes
- Study looks at impact of water, sanitation, and social conditions on birth outcomes in India
- Baker authors research note on social and psychological impact of limited access to sanitation
- Baker studies how hygiene practices affect women’s health in rural India
- Baker discusses her work on WASH risk factors for women in rural India
- Baker studies shared sanitation facilities, health risks to children
- Kelly Baker co-authors letter to The Lancet on gender disparities in water, sanitation
- BBC covers Kelly Baker study of adverse pregnancies in India
- A quest for clean water