Sarah is a postdoctoral trainee investigating the association between occupational and environmental exposure to industrial livestock operations and antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus nasal carriage and infection. She is also working on pilot research to validate microbial source tracking (MST) markers in air samples. Sarah was a NSF GRFP Fellow and received her Ph.D. from the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at UNC-Chapel Hill. Under the direction of Dr. Stewart, her doctoral research investigated exposure to antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus among industrial hog operation workers and their <7 year old household members, compared to a group of community referent participants. As a graduate student, she also mentored undergraduate students investigating beach water quality in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Her interests include microbial source tracking, emerging infectious disease viewed through a One Health lens, and applied epidemiology. Sarah is also interested in science communication and the use of citizen science and community-driven research to investigate environmental health disparities and empower communities.
