Group Members

Daniel M. Parker, PhD

Associate Professor · CV · Research Atlas

Daniel M. Parker is an Associate Professor in Public Health at the University of California in Irvine. His research focuses on spatial epidemiology (especially of infectious diseases), spatial demography and global health. He earned a BA in Anthropology (certificate in Medical Anthropology and Global Health) from the University of Washington, Seattle in 2009 and a dual PhD in Anthropology and Demography from The Pennsylvania State University in 2014. He was a postdoctoral researcher at Shoklo Malaria Research Unit, a field station of the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, from 2014 – 2017.

Jose Villalvazo, MS

PhD Candidate

Jose Villalvazo holds a Master of Science degree (Spring 2023) in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of California, Irvine. During his graduate studies, he conducted research on the potential risk factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 test positivity in children from Orange County. With a focus on infectious disease epidemiology and global health, Jose is passionate about exploring ways to prevent and control the spread of infectious diseases worldwide.

Marcela Lopez, BA

PhD Candidate

Marcela is a PhD student in the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics at UC Irvine. Her research interests include infectious disease epidemiology, maternal & child health, and health equity. She has previously conducted research on COVID-19 transmission within household and school settings, vaccine hesitancy among pregnant populations, and biomarkers of stress and wellness. She is co-mentored by Dr Tetyana Vasylyeva. She earned a BA in Anthropology, with a concentration in Biological Anthropology, from Yale University in 2019.

Adriana Urrutia, MA

PhD Candidate

I am a Peruvian political scientist with a Master’s Degree in Comparative Politics (Sciences Po Paris). I am interested in linking social sciences to health sciences and politics to health to understand and to help solve health disparities. I have worked for 6 years as a public servant in Peru as an advisor for the Ministery of Development and Social Inclusion and the Ministery of Education. For 4 and a half years I was the chair of the Political Science School at Antonio Ruiz de Montoya University and had to manage the COVID-19 crisis as an education services provider. Since 2017, I have participated in some research projects focused on the linkages between rural and urban environments with a focus on rural youth. I am now interested in analyzing the way social determinants and processes interacts with environmental determinants and how this affects health, especially infectious diseases such as dengue fever.

Zeinab Hemdan, MPH

PhD Student

Zeinab Hemdan is a PhD student in the Department of Global Health & Biobehavioral Sciences. Her research interests include understanding and monitoring the impacts of armed conflict and war in Lebanon on people’s health, the environment and public health infrastructure. She has previously conducted research on health insurance coverage among Arab Americans at the Displacement and Health Research Center at the University of California, San Diego. Zeinab holds a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Heven Sime Firew

PhD Candidate

Heven is a public health researcher at a the Public Health Institute in Ethiopia and a PhD student at Addis Ababa University. Her research focuses on investigating the demographic, environmental, and public health factors influencing malaria epidemiology in Ethiopia. Her dissertation research is supported by the University of California, Irvine. In addition to malaria, her work also encompasses epidemiology and other aspects of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs).

Maia Tarnas, BA, PhD

CV

Dr. Tarnas completed her PhD in 2026 and has moved on to a postdoctoral position at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Gaëlle T. Sehi, MPH, PhD

Dr. Sehi completed her PhD in 2026 and is moving on to a postdoctoral position in Germany.

Natasha Glendening, MSc, PhD

Dr. Glendening finished her PhD at UC Irvine in 2025. She is beginning a tenure track position at Santa Clara University in Fall 2025.

Chel Baker, BsN, MAS, PhD

Postdoctoral Researcher

Dr. Baker completed her PhD at the UCI Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing in 2025. Her research interests include infectious disease transmission, global health, and spatial epidemiology.

Shemms Najjar, MPH

MPH Student

Shemms Najjar conducted research on the historical and present-day transmission/presence of cholera across the Middle East and North Africa region. Her interests broadly lie in the fields of global health, refugee/immigrant health, and historical epidemiology.

Hector Manuel Jr. Garcia

BS Honors

Hector was a Senior Honors Student in the BS Program in Public Health and he did his honors thesis on how student living arrangements (i.e. whether they live on campus versus off campus) influences uptake of the flu vaccine.

Sayambhu Saita, PhD

Visiting Scholar

Sayambhu visited us in 2018, returned to finish his PhD in Tropical Medicine at Mahidol University, Thailand in June 2019. He is now a faculty member in Public Health at Thammasat University, Thailand.