Friday Conference: Monitoring Wastewater to Understand Disease Trends in Communities

Ariel Christensen is the Director of the NC Wastewater Monitoring Network (NCWMN) at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Concurrently, she is a fourth-year PhD Student in Epidemiology. Using wastewater-based epidemiology, the NCWMN tests for multiple pathogens (SARS-CoV-2, Influenza A, Influenza B, and Respiratory syncytial virus, and Mpox) to track burden of illness in communities and inform public health action. Ariel has 7 years of applied epidemiology experience in state and local government during which she has designed and worked with environmental, occupational, and infectious disease surveillance systems. Her background is in disaster epidemiology and incident response where she has worked on multiple public health investigations including COVID-19, Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), hurricanes and flooding, and E-cigarette and vaping associated lung injury (EVALI). Her dissertation and work focuses on translating methodological and subject matter specific approaches from epidemiology research into public health practice.