Enhancing Flu Forecasting Through Innovative Technology and Collaboration
In 2023, gifts supporting pilot funding for research allowed Thomas McAndrew, associate professor, department of biostatistics and health data science, and Rochelle Frounfelker, assistant professor, department of population health, to start a new project in infectious disease modeling and forecasting, forming the basis for a major award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) within two years. Conversations with COH faculty have inspired alumni such as Dr. Stephen T. C. Wong G’89, G’91, Carrie Callahan ’96 and Jim Wassil G’95, G’05 to help seed this and other early-stage research, providing support that allows faculty and students to explore new ideas, build pilot projects and lay the groundwork for long-term impact.
McAndrew, a computational scientist, is developing an innovative tool that looks at how accurately individuals make flu predictions over time and weighing those predictions accordingly in his forecasting. As a social epidemiologist, Frounfelker is leading a project to understand the decision making processes of key stakeholders, ensuring that the technology is informed by real-world needs. This work, which was supported by Kareem Hargrove ’25 and Katie Blomkvist G’25, will contribute to population well-being by improving evidence-based public health decision-making for infectious diseases.
Separately, McAndrew supervises undergraduate students in multiple research projects related to infectious disease through the Computational Uncertainty Lab. The lab aims to improve the health and well being of others through the study and application of computational models.
Innovations in Global Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Research
Since 2022, Gabrielle String has led multiple research projects that make a real-world impact in public health. An environmental health engineer with joint appointments in the College of Health department of population health and the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science’s department of civil and environmental engineering, she frequently collaborates with other faculty and students on projects related to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in low resource settings. In 2023, String and Rochelle Frounfelker received a Lehigh University Faculty Innovation Grant, providing internal funding for research exploring WASH insecurity and its overlap with mental health and well-being. As most WASH experts study the physical rather than mental health outcomes of WASH insecurity, this is a unique area of study representing their combined areas of expertise at the COH, according to String.
COH students worked on an analysis of relevant UNICEF data, and MPH student Katie Blomkvist G’25 is the lead author of a manuscript exploring how WASH experts understand the relationship between WASH insecurity and mental health. In 2024, Frounfelker and String travelled to South Sudan for a pilot study with Oxfam, a global organization that works to fight poverty and inequity, to examine the experiences of women and men with WASH insecurity and how they understand the relationship between WASH insecurity and psychosocial well-being.
String has also led projects connected to safe water storage and container cleaning. Under String’s guidance, MPH student Josephine Osroagbo ’24, G’25 conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed papers and global guidelines for safe water storage. Since initiating the project as an undergraduate STEM SI scholar, she has presented her work in multiple conferences. The team is now analyzing the final data.
String has also mentored Tracy Zhang G’25 in safe water storage research through a partnership with CAWST (Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology), a Canadian nonprofit, and the Africa MANZI Center, their NGO partner. They developed a study to evaluate container cleaning practices at community health clubs in Zambia, and are now finalizing a manuscript. Zhang also presented on the topic of safe water storage to prevent recontamination of drinking water for a global webinar with CAWST and the Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage Network.
Leadership and Scholarship in Health Policy and Bioethics
Since joining the College in 2021, Michael Gusmano has played a pivotal role in helping to establish and build the COH. He serves as professor of population health, Iacocca Chair, associate dean for academic programs in the College of Health, director of the Center for Ethics, and co-director of the health, medicine & society program.
Gusmano is also a prolific researcher in health policy. Since joining the COH in 2021, he has published 34 peer-reviewed articles and six chapters in peer-reviewed books, and he has completed two book manuscripts. His early research at the COH centered around the COVID-19 pandemic. He has also published multiple articles exploring the different dimensions of the U.S. healthcare system performance and system reform, and has continued to compare the U.S. health system with those in other wealthy countries.
Gusmano leads an NIH R01-funded project on xenotransplantation ethics, which explores the implications of using genetically modified pig kidneys for human transplantation. Multiple COH students have contributed to the project, including Henry Scott ’27 and Nirosha Rayala G’25, on data collection, interviews, data analysis and literature reviews. Several of these students have become co-authors on related publications. In 2024, he started a new NIH R01-funded project on the ethics of gene therapies. This project involves in-depth interviews with clinical, ethics and policy experts, as well as a national survey of physicians.
Gusmano is also concluding a year-long project in partnership with Bayada Home Health, which explores whether very sick children with complex medical conditions have better health outcomes by receiving more intensive home health services instead of receiving care in the hospital. E.J. Rovella, who joined the inaugural cohort of College of Health PhD students, is first author of the final report. Rovella has taken the lead on conducting in-depth interviews with Bayada management, staff and nursing and will likely incorporate these findings into his dissertation. He presented some of their joint work at the AcademyHealth and the American Public Health Association conferences.
Advancing Environmental Health through Community Partnerships
Kate Jackson works at the intersection of environment, race and health, researching how environmental factors impact human health in a positive or negative way. In 2024-25, Jackson, assistant professor, department of community and global health, co-led a school greenhouse and plant therapy program with Bethlehem’s Broughal Middle School and local Southside Community Garden Coordinator, Nia Watson. The curriculum was carefully crafted to focus on the connections between growing plants and personal growth, and also celebrated the students' diverse cultural heritages. After growing plants from seed, students presented them to community members who tend local gardens and feed their neighbors.
Jackson also continues work on a collaborative program between Lehigh students and the Bethlehem community to address persistent waste challenges. The city of Bethlehem operates uniquely under a multi-hauler system, with no city-provided trash service; therefore, residents arrange for their own trash removal.
With 26 different trash hauling companies operating independently, trash is “a very visible representation of environmental injustice,” Jackson said. According to Jackson, environmental justice is the disparate impact of environmental hazards on communities of lower income and communities of color. In this case, trash can become more of a burden when it is too expensive to remove, when illegal dumping occurs, and when density, coupled with cost, leads to illegal dumping, less space and residential turnover (due to gentrification), resulting in trash accumulation in certain areas.
Student teams have provided “incredible” support on this project. The Creative Inquiry Social Impact Fellowship team, “Community Mapping for Environmental Justice,” collaboratively generated an online map highlighting areas of significant trash buildup, allowing for targeted strategies to clean and improve these hotspots. Under Jackson’s mentorship, students presented on the trash mapping project at the Engaged Scholars Consortium conference in Portland, Oregon, as well as to the City of Bethlehem. The project is now part of Bethlehem's Climate Action Plan.
