Our Team

Christina Barstow, PhD, MPH Student

Dr. Barstow is an international development professional who has focused on the research and implementation of programs across a variety of sectors including WASH, nutrition, energy, and infrastructure. She earned her PhD in Environmental Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder where she focused on large scale implementation in low to middle income communities. She is currently working on a research and learning project in the Democratic Republic of Congo, utilizing an implementation science framework to improve outcomes of a water service provider intervention. Dr. Barstow is also the Chief Strategy Officer at Bridges to Prosperity, a non-profit organization focused on the implementation of trailbridges in low to middle income communities.

Ms. Contreras recently received her bachelor's degree in Physics from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She is currently growing her direct work experience as a PRA for the Carlton Lab, but eventually intends to pursue an MPP where her interests in data and social policy intersect. Right now, she supports COVID-19 modeling endeavors for Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West. 

Elise Grover, DrPH, MSPH

After receiving her MSPH in International Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Dr. Grover joined the Colorado School of Public Health in 2017 to complete a DrPH in Environmental and Occupational Health. Her dissertation work was focused on understanding parasitic disease transmission in the context of weather and environmental factors. Having graduated from the DrPH program in 2022, she is now currently working as a Senior Professional Research Assistant with the Carlton Lab Group where she assists with research and analyses that are primarily focused on the roles of weather, the environment and behavior in Schistosoma japonicum transmission dynamics among rural farming communities located in Sichuan, China.

Andrew Hill, MS

Andrew is a Research Software Engineer working at the Center for Innovative Design and Analysis (CIDA) in the Colorado School of Public Health. Andrew received his MS in Computer Science from the University of Colorado Denver in 2020 in the Data Science in Biomedicine track. His interests include statistics, machine learning, and model and software development in the context of medical research. In the Carlton Lab, Andrew is currently working with the COVID-19 modeling group. 

Dave Johnson, MS Student

Dave is pursuing a Master of Science in Epidemiology. He attended Harvard as an undergrad, and previously explored finance, app development, and copywriting before attending the Colorado School of Public Health. He is currently assisting with modeling projects around the COVID-19 outbreak in Colorado.

Irina Kasarskis, MPH, DrPH Student

Irina is a DrPH student in the Department of Epidemiology. She received her MPH in Biostatistics and Epidemiology from Boston University School of Public Health. She previously worked as an epidemiologist for the State of Oregon and has an interest in infectious diseases. In the Carlton Lab, she works on regional models with the COVID-19 modeling team.

Andrea Lund, MPH, PhD

Dr. Lund is a health and environmental scientist interested in how social factors interact with environmental drivers of infectious disease transmission. As a postdoctoral fellow, she is integrating genomic and epidemiologic data to understand schistosome transmission in Sichuan, China. She received her PhD from the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources at Stanford University, where her dissertation research focused on human ecology of schistosomiasis in Senegal, West Africa. Previously, she studied the ecology of mosquito-borne disease in urban Atlanta and the role of social factors in explaining environmental risk for cholera in the Dominican Republic. In addition to the PhD, she holds an MPH in global epidemiology from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and a bachelor of arts in biology and Spanish from the University of Minnesota, Morris.

Ms. Suzuki is pursuing a Master of Public Health concentrating in Environmental and Occupational Health at the Colorado School of Public Health. Prior to attending graduate school, she explored a career in strategic marketing, social media management, and multimedia production. She is currently working as a member of the Carlton Lab to support efforts in stakeholder engagement and outreach through communication of modeling results and a public-facing website. 

Emma completed her Master of Science in Epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus in 2021. She is driven towards a career in the prevention and mitigation of emerging zoonotic infectious disease spillover and transmission. She is currently working as a member of the Carlton Lab using COVID-19 mathematical models to inform public health decision-making for Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West.  

Olivia is an Environmental & Occupational Health DrPH student in Dr. Carlton’s research group. She received her MPH in Global Environmental Health at Emory University where she became interested in the control of arboviruses and the influence of climate change on vector distribution. To support future Aedes-borne disease risk-mapping, Olivia is assisting with projects focused on the surveillance of Aedes mosquitoes in Ghana. She is currently employed as an Infection Disease Specialist for the Environmental Health and Safety Office on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus. In this role, Olivia manages the campus COVID-19 contact tracing program, oversees BSL-3 laboratory safety protocols, and provides recommendations to campus leadership related to infectious disease preparedness and response policies.