Sagan Friant

Sagan Friant is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Pennsylvania State University. Her research bridges evolutionary anthropology and public health, focusing on the interplay between human behavior, ecological systems, and zoonotic disease emergence in Nigeria. As director of the RISK Lab, she leads interdisciplinary projects under the One Health framework to address health risks at the human-wildlife interface.

• Key Research Areas: Disease ecology, bushmeat hunting, socio-ecological systems, nutritional anthropology, zoonotic spillover, and One Health interventions.
• Projects: NSF-funded study on Lassa virus spillover, CDC contract on monkeypox risk factors, and community-driven initiatives to combat food insecurity and wildlife trade.
• Publications: Recent work explores zoonotic disease links to bushmeat, parasite dynamics in primates, and innovative metabarcoding protocols for pathogen detection.
• Students: Mentors graduate students Christian Herrera and Christina Harden.