Kelly Lane-deGraaf, Ph.D. Joins CPHSJ as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
The Saint Louis University College for Public Health and Social Justice has named Kelly Lane-deGraaf, Ph.D. as the associate dean in Academic Affairs as well as an associate professor of epidemiology of infectious diseases.
Lane-deGraaf, completed her Ph.D. in Biological Science from the University of Notre Dame and as a first-generation scholar, she has “always had a willingness to take advantage of opportunities, even if they didn’t exactly fit the traditional path.”
Upon completing her Master of Science in Biology at SLU, she worked at the Saint Louis Zoo before pursuing her Ph.D. Her work shifted from a focus on the impacts of parasites and pathogens in the world and environmental education to disease ecology. During her doctoral program, she spent time living and working in Indonesia.
“The economic disparity there in major cities and small rural communities was both shocking and familiar. This experience began my thinking more about how inequality shapes not just human health but the health of animals and ecosystems, which then, in turn, impacts human health,” said Lane-deGraaf.
Some of her research interests include how human activities directly and indirectly shape our ecosystem and the ecosystems of every other living thing on the planet. She has approached this work by thinking about how the environment has shaped the genetic structure and transmission dynamics in largely urban mammal populations. She has worked with several different mammalian species but in the last few years has focused on the landscape genetics of raccoons and their roundworms in St. Louis.
“Given the racial segregation of the city, as carved through years of racist policies around home and land ownership, St. Louis is an interesting model system for answering questions about the unintended consequences of this history on patterns of urban wildlife and their pathogens,” she said.
Lane-deGraaf’s greatest accomplishments include training hundreds of students in disease ecology, data analysis, and the history of racism in science over the last decade. She also worked with an outreach program called, Girls* in Science, which more than 1,000 middle schoolers have participated in.
When asked about what she is most excited for in her new role, Lane-deGraaf said, “The community of people – it’s great to be in an environment where everyone is excited about serving the students and the greater community.”
College for Public Health and Social Justice
The Saint Louis University College for Public Health and Social Justice is the only academic unit of its kind, studying social, environmental and physical influences that together determine the health and well-being of people and communities. It also is the only accredited school or college of public health among nearly 250 Catholic institutions of higher education in the United States. Guided by a mission of social justice and focus on finding innovative and collaborative solutions for complex health problems, the college offers nationally recognized programs in public health and health administration.