Title(s): Associate Professor
Department: Occupational and Environmental Health
Office: S316 CPHB
Phone: (319) 384-4008
Dr. Baker is a microbiologist and epidemiologist whose research aims to generate evidence on household- and community-level environmental causes of enteric pathogen transmission between humans, animals, and the environment to improve the prioritization of interventions and policies that can reduce global enteric disease burden. Her overall goal is help individuals and communities in the US and globally that are vulnerable to environmental pollution and enteric disease achieve equitable access to environmental resources that can prevent pathogen transmission. Her current research includes:
- Role of societal development in the collapse of Enteric Disease transmission in high burden settings
- Supplemental food safety and food hygiene interventions to prevent early infancy enteric infections
- Development of microbiological, spatial, behavioral, and climate exposure assessment methods for use in epidemiological studies
- Evaluation of low-cost rapid diagnostic tests for enteric pathogens
- Impact of environmental poverty, especially water, sanitation, and hygiene, in adverse birth outcomes
- Antimicrobial resistant and enteric pathogen pollution risks from rural well water in Iowa
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
- Iowa research partnership developing a rapid, low-cost test for diarrheal diseases
- Hear from UI global health researchers
- Researchers receive $2.5M grant to study how societal development affects diarrheal disease transmission
- Baker comments on countries’ strategies to fight pandemic
- Baker discusses challenges facing custodians during pandemic
- 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 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