All Events
Wednesday
Jan 21,  2026

Disease Ecology on a Changing Planet

Clark-Fox Forum in Hillman Hall, and online
6350 Forsyth Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63105
9:00 am - 1:00 pm
This event brought together academics, clinicians, policymakers, and community leaders to explore the role climate change plays in reshaping patterns of infectious disease, and why coordinated, multisectoral collaborations are essential to build future readiness.

At WashU and online

“Disease Ecology on a Changing Planet” was the inaugural convening of WashU School of Public Health’s Solutions through Planetary Health Research (SPHERE) network. The event brought together academics, clinicians, policymakers, and community leaders to explore the role climate change plays in reshaping patterns of infectious disease, and why coordinated, multisectoral collaborations are essential to build future readiness. The event’s keynote speakers were Bard College professor and ecologist Felicia Keesing, PhD, winner of the 2022 International Cosmos Prize; and physician and epidemiologist Neil Vora, MD, a noted advocate for preventing future pandemics. They and other experts discussed research, policy frameworks, and community-based approaches needed to advance innovative strategies that prevent pandemics, protect biodiversity, and build healthier, more resilient communities and ecosystems.

See here for a recording of the symposium.

See here for story reporting on the event: 

See here for a story previewing the event.

See here for more information about SPHERE.

Agenda

8:15 a.m. — 9:00 a.m.
Registration & coffee
9:00 a.m. — 9:10 a.m.
Welcome & opening remarks

Speaker

  • Dan Giammar, PhD, the Walter E. Browne Professor of Environmental Engineering at McKelvey Engineering, a member of the WashU Public Health secondary faculty, the director of WashU’s Center for the Environment, and the co-director of the Solutions through Planetary Health Research (SPHERE) network
9:10 a.m. — 9:55 a.m.
Keynote Presentation: Biodiversity and Infectious Diseases: Principles to Guide Prevention

Presenter

  • Felicia Keesing, PhD, the David and Rosalie Rose Distinguished Professor of Science, Mathematics, and Computing at Bard College

 

 

9:55 a.m. — 10:35 a.m.
Panel: Interconnected Health: Linking Human, Animal, and Environmental Health

This panel explores the systems, data, and ecological interactions that shape disease emergence and transmission. Panelists bring perspectives from disease ecology, wildlife health, systems science, and medical research to explore how we can be prepared for understand when and where new zoonotic diseases are likely to emerge, and why as well as strategies to reduce human and wildlife disease risk and conserve biodiversity.

Moderator

  • Jonathan Losos, PhD, the William H. Danforth Distinguished University Professor and a professor of biology in Arts & Sciences at WashU, and a co-director of the Living Earth Collaborative

Panelists

  • Felicia Keesing
  • Christina Stallings, PhD, the Theodore and Bertha Bryan Professor in Environmental Medicine and a professor of molecular microbiology at WashU Medicine
  • Solny Adalsteinsson, PhD, a senior scientist at WashU’s Tyson Research Center
  • Ram K. Raghavan, MPH, PhD, an associate professor at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine and School of Health Professions
10:35 a.m. — 10:50 a.m.
Break
10:50 a.m. — 11:30 a.m.
Keynote Presentation: An Investment in Nature is an Investment in Health

Presenter

  • Neil Vora, MD, the executive director of Preventing Pandemics at the Source Coalition and orchestrator in residence at Integral Consulting
11:30 a.m. — 12:10 p.m.
Panel: From Insight to Impact: Translating Disease Ecology Research into Policy and Practice

This panel examines how to translate research in disease ecology to inform real-world decision-making. Panelists will discuss pathways for translating evidence into effective public health strategies, policy approaches, entrepreneurial opportunities and community-level interventions.

Moderator

  • Dave Wang, PhD,  the Robert C. Packman Professor of Molecular Microbiology at WashU Medicine

Panelists

  • Neil Vora
  • Nandini Raghuraman, MD, MSCI, an associate professor of obstetrics & gynecology at WashU Medicine
  • Mati Hlatshwayo Davis, MD, MPH, former director of health for the City of St. Louis Department of Health
  • Douglas Luke, MA, PhD, the Distinguished Professor in Public Health Systems Science at WashU Public Health
12:10 p.m. — 12:20 p.m.
Closing remarks

Speaker

  • Dan Giammar
12:20 p.m. — 1:00 p.m.
Networking lunch

Keynote speakers

Felicia Keesing, PhD
Keesing is a biologist who studies the consequences of interactions among species, particularly as biodiversity declines. Her recent work focuses on how biodiversity influences the probability that humans and other animals will be exposed to infectious diseases. She is an elected fellow of the Ecological Society of America and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2022, she received the International Cosmos Prize, and in 2023, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 2024, she received the C. Hart Merriam award for distinguished research in the study of mammals. 
Neil Vora, MD
Dr. Vora addresses the interconnected challenges of human health, environmental protection, and climate change. He brings experience from nearly a decade with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he led responses to outbreaks including Ebola disease in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and a novel poxvirus in the country of Georgia. In 2020, he was appointed by then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to design and lead the city’s COVID-19 contact-tracing program, which reached more than 700,000 New Yorkers. He co-chairs the Lancet/PPATS Commission on Prevention of Viral Spillover and cares for patients in a public tuberculosis clinic in New York City.

Speakers and panelists

Solny Adalsteinsson, PhD
Panelist
At Tyson Research Center, Adalsteinsson directs a research lab focused on understanding how human impacts on the environment affect tick-borne disease ecology and wildlife conservation using field work, landscape-scale experiments, and mathematical modeling. As a field station ecologist, Adalsteinsson monitors natural resources and wildlife populations at the field station and in the greater St. Louis region.
Dan Giammar, PhD
Speaker
An environmental engineer, Giammar studies chemical reactions that affect the fate and transport of heavy metals, radionuclides, and other inorganic constituents in natural and engineered aquatic systems. His recent work has focused on the removal of arsenic and chromium from drinking water, control of the corrosion of lead pipes, geologic carbon sequestration, and biogeochemical processes for remediation of uranium-contaminated sites.
Mati Hlatshwayo Davis, MD, MPH
Panelist
Dr. Hlatshwayo Davis is an internationally recognized infectious diseases physician and public health leader dedicated to advancing health equity. She served as the director of health for the City of St. Louis from 2021 to 2025, where she led a nationally recognized COVID-19 response and established the city’s first Behavioral Health Bureau.
Jonathan Losos, PhD
Moderator
Losos is an internationally renowned evolutionary biologist whose research focuses on the behavioral and evolutionary ecology of lizards and how species adapt to changing environments, including urban habitats. He is also a co-director of the Living Earth Collaborative, a partnership among Washington University, the Missouri Botanical Garden, and the Saint Louis Zoo, dedicated to advancing the study of biodiversity.
Douglas Luke, MA, PhD
Panelist
Luke is a leading researcher in public health policy and systems science, focusing on the evaluation, dissemination, and implementation of evidence-based public health policies. Over the past decade, he has applied systems science methods to study the diffusion of scientific innovations, organizational collaborations, and mentoring’s impact on future scientific work.
Ram K. Raghavan, MPH, PhD
Panelist
A computational epidemiologist, Raghavan specializes in the spatial and environmental drivers of infectious, vector-borne, and zoonotic diseases affecting animal and human populations. His research integrates geographic information systems, remote sensing, and spatio-temporal modeling to understand how climate, landscape, and socio-ecological factors shape disease risk and emergence. His work has informed surveillance and prevention strategies for tick-borne and emerging infectious diseases across diverse settings.
Nandini Raghuraman, MD
Panelist
A physician-scientist, Dr. Raghuraman specializes in caring for patients with high-risk pregnancies and leads research aimed at improving maternal and newborn outcomes. She has expertise in using implementation and de-implementation science to improve pregnancy outcomes during labor. Her work has influenced clinical practice and national guidelines, including studies on labor interventions that optimize childbirth outcomes.
Christina Stallings, PhD
Panelist
Stallings seeks to understand the molecular mechanisms by which Mycobacterium tuberculosis — the bacterium that causes tuberculosis — causes disease, from the perspective of both the host and the pathogen. She is dedicated to translating her basic science findings into new therapeutics to treat bacterial infections and holds five patents for the development of new antibiotics to treat tuberculosis.
Dave Wang, PhD
Moderator
Wang’s research sits at the interface of molecular and cellular virology, genomics, and bioinformatics. His research team develops and applies advanced next-generation sequencing platforms and bioinformatic tools to identify previously unrecognized viral pathogens associated with both established and emerging infectious diseases.