Natalie Giannelli Exum is a PhD student in the Environmental Health Sciences Department at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. She has a master’s degree in environmental engineering from Stanford University’s Water Studies Program and a B.S. in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia. Her research focus is on water and health in developing countries and the exposure pathways for diarrheal disease transmission due to a lack of adequate sanitation. Natalie plans to use environmental epidemiology, exposure assessment, sociology and microbiology to understand these pathways and ultimately develop strategies to reduce diarrheal disease and fecal contamination.
Prior to coming to Johns Hopkins, Natalie worked for the World Bank for five years as a water specialist in both Latin America and the Caribbean and South Asia regions. She worked on technical and institutional problems in the water sector and has carried out a number of project investments, studies, and research in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Colombia, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, and Ecuador. Her work included rural water supply and sanitation; slum upgrading; urban development; wastewater infrastructure; irrigation sector reform; hydrologic models; flood forecasting and management; groundwater hydrogeology; water allocation mechanisms and instruments; international rivers and trans-boundary issues; and climate change. While at Stanford, Natalie also participated in a field study in Kenya to assess the linkages between the productive use of domestic water, poverty reduction, and sustainability.