Karen Levy

Karen Levy is a Professor in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) at the University of Washington School of Public Health. Her research focuses on the ecology and epidemiology of environmentally-mediated infectious diseases, particularly enteric pathogens transmitted through water, food, and animal exposure. She holds a PhD and MPH from UC Berkeley and a BA from Stanford University. Her work emphasizes vulnerable populations in low-resource settings, including efforts to address climate change impacts on disease transmission.

Levy leads the Levy Research Group, which integrates microbiology, genomics, and epidemiology to study environmental health linkages. Key affiliations include the UW School of Public Health, DEOHS, and leadership roles in committees such as the DEOHS Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) Committee. Her research spans global health collaborations in Ecuador, Mozambique, and beyond, with a commitment to decolonizing global health practices and fostering equity in scientific partnerships.

Teaching responsibilities include courses on water/wastewater health and environmental health in media. She advocates for inclusive research environments, as outlined in the lab’s DE&I statement, and emphasizes ethical engagement with communities to mitigate health disparities. Recent projects include assessing climate change impacts on diarrheal diseases and evaluating interventions to reduce pathogen transmission via poultry value chains in Maputo, Mozambique.

Publications highlight her work in Environmental Research Letters, ACS Synthetic Biology, and Environmental Health Perspectives, with a focus on microbial surveillance, intervention effectiveness, and global health equity.