Lab group members and affiliates

Andrew MacDonald, PhD: Lab PI. I am a broadly trained disease ecologist and environmental scientist. I study the ecology and eco-epidemiology of vector-borne and zoonotic diseases. I use a combination of field, laboratory and computational approaches to answer questions at the intersection of ecology, epidemiology, environmental science and public health.

Samantha Sambado: PhD student, EEMB (UCSB). Sam is interested in using empirical & theoretical frameworks to understand the ecology and evolution of vector-borne diseases in a changing climate. Current work includes understanding spatial and temporal risk of tick-borne diseases across California. Sam is co-advised by Cherie Briggs and Andy MacDonald.

Kacie Ring: PhD student, EEMB (UCSB). Kacie is interested in investigating the responses of vectors and their host community to anthropogenic perturbations by combining field and molecular data to inform theoretical models. Her current research aims to examine alterations in host-vector-pathogen interactions and transmission dynamics across land-use gradients in Rural Madagascar. Kacie is co-advised by Cherie Briggs and Andy MacDonald.

Lisa Couper: PhD student, Biology (Stanford). Lisa is interested in the effects of climate change on vector-borne disease and the potential for vectors to adapt to climate warming. In her current work, she is investigating variation in thermal tolerance in treehole mosquitoes across western North America. Lisa is advised by Erin Mordecai at Stanford, with Andy MacDonald serving on her committee.

David Hyon: Former UCSB undergraduate and CCS Biology major, RA, West Nile virus dynamics in California. David has been involved in numerous research projects in the lab, from tick sampling across California, to DNA extraction and PCR in the lab, and earth observation data processing in Google Earth Engine. He is now working on data processing and wrangling to understand environmental drivers of West Nile virus dynamics in California's San Joaquin Valley.

TJ Sipin: TJ is a NSF REU researcher working on the NSF EEID funded project on land use change and vector-borne disease. He is about to finish his undergrad at UCSB in Statistics and Data Science, and is interested in applying his skills in fields like ecology, where the influence of new data science is less involved than the financial or tech industries. He is currently using machine learning to predict estimated disease rates in the Amazon on climate, land-use, and socioeconomic variables.

Lyndsey Umsted:  Lyndsey is a NSF REU researcher working on the NSF EEID funded project on land use change and vector-borne disease along with TJ Sipin. She is an undergraduate student entering her third year as a Statistics and Data Science BS major at UCSB. Her interests are in research and public health, and she has been researching Masters programs in data science, biostatistics, epidemiology, and public health. Lyndsey is currently using machine learning and statistical modeling techniques to predict and understand the dynamics of the neglected tropical disease, leishmaniasis, using climate, land-use, and socioeconomic variables.

Former members

Abraham Soto: Abraham was a UCSB McNair Scholar and CCS Biology student and is interested in the intersections between ecology, epidemiology, parasitology, and public health and using those fields to address parasitic diseases impacting underserved communities in the US and internationally. His work included tick identification and drivers of Leishmaniasis transmission in the Peruvian Amazon. He is now a MPH student at UC Berkeley.

UCSB COVID-19 project team​: Environmental Studies undergraduate students (L to R, Top to Bottom) Melanie Leung, Jacklyn Vo, Dahlia Shahin, Mika Leslie, Julia Di Lena, Erika Egg. Melanie Leung is a former undergrad researcher for the COVID-19 project team - current: UCLA Geography; Jacklyn Vo is a former UCSB undergraduate researcher who majored in Environmental Studies and minored in Earth Science and Professional Science Writing. She is interested in climate change impacts on human health and social equity, specifically how natural disasters will affect underserved communities; Dahlia Shahin is a former undergrad researcher for the COVID-19 project team - current: NASA DEVELOP Program Project Lead; Mika Leslie is a former undergrad researcher for the COVID-19 project team - current: UCSB undergrad; Julia Di Lena is a former undergrad researcher for the COVID-19 project team; Erika Egg is a former undergrad researcher for the COVID-19 project team - current: UCSB undergrad.​

Mauricio Collado: Bren School Ph.D. student, RA, Leishmaniasis transmission in the Peruvian Amazon. Since 2016, Mauricio Collado has developed economic models to evaluate the policy impact of avoiding deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon. His work with the model T21-Peru estimated the forest loss in 2050 and the potential success and synergies of sustainable interventions. Through the POLYSYS model, the projections improved thanks to detailed agriculture, livestock, and forestry modules. The work with Andrew MacDonald is an opportunity to go beyond by incorporating ecology, public health, and infrastructure issues.

Sofie McComb: Former Bren School MESM, RA, tick distribution modeling and geospatial data analysis; current: PhD student UBC. Sofie McComb is a PhD student at the University of British Columbia in Tara Martin's Conservation Decisions Lab. Her research will combine ecological modeling and decision science to better understand the impact of interacting human threats on the Coastal Douglas-fir ecosystems of British Columbia as well as to prioritize cost-effective conservation and management interventions in the face of global change. Before joining the lab, she worked as a Junior Specialist in Global Change Ecology at UCSB with Drs. Ashley Larsen and Andy MacDonald, working on projects investigating alterations in vectors of disease, insecticide use, and other landscape factors under shifting climate and land use regimes.

Akira McDaniels: Akira is a MD candidate at the University of California, Irvine, and a former UCSB McNair Scholar, and Louis Stokes CAMP Scholar interested in Social Justice, Public Health, and Health Equity.

Meghan Bowen: ​Former Bren School MESM, RA, geospatial data analysis and assessment of forest fragmentation in the Amazon basin.

Craig O'Neill​: Former Bren School MESM, RA, tick distribution modeling in California.