At Penn State, my postdoctoral research with Dr. Sagan Friant delves into the health consequences arising from human-wildlife interactions, particularly the hunting and trade of wildmeat in southern Nigeria. To explore the dynamics of wildlife utilization in the context of commercial trade, I co-created annual and monthly surveys administered to 140 participants over 12 months. The analysis of these data involves integrating analytical methods from ecology and social sciences, examining variation in species composition and human behavior. The goal is to investigate how species-dependent risks and benefits of bushmeat handling vary across different sections of society, shedding light on zoonotic disease risks, sustainability, and food security.

In future research endeavors, I plan to incorporate mixed methods ethnographic data, such as participatory rural appraisals, activity space mapping, and in-depth semi-structured interviews on human-environment interactions. This comprehensive approach is part of a larger collaborator project that aims to explore how people in Nigeria adapt agricultural livelihood strategies, recognized as significant drivers of Lassa fever, a rodent-borne disease of global health importance. Through collaborative efforts, this research explicitly integrates highly localized studies on climate adaptation with geospatial data analysis and big data, contributing to mapping health risks at larger, policy-relevant scales.