OUR TEAM
CONSERVE is led by a transdisciplinary team engaged in research, extension and education in the Mid‐Atlantic and Southwest with the goal of moving the science and policy of water reuse forward.
Project Director
University of Maryland, College Park
Dr. Sapkota's research interests lie in the areas of environmental microbiology, environmental microbial genomics, exposure assessment and environmental epidemiology. Her research group evaluates the complex relationships between environmental microbial exposures and human infectious diseases, with a special focus on assessing the public health impacts associated with water reuse.
Project Co-Directors
University of Arizona
Dr. Gerba specializes in research on the transmission of pathogens through the environment.
University of Maryland, College Park
Paul Goeringer specializes in legal risk management as it relates to agriculture.
University of Maryland, Eastern Shore
Dr. Hashem’s research focuses on environmental microbiology, microbial source tracking, bioremediation, phyto-remediation, plant-microbe interactions, environmental pollution and food safety.
University of Delaware
Dr. Kniel’s research focuses on food and waterborne protozoa and viruses and use of non-thermal methods to inactivate these organisms on fresh produce.
University of Delaware
Dr. Messer’s research focuses on environmental conservation, provision of public goods, and behavioral response to risk.
University of Maryland, College Park
Dr. Micallef specializes in the microbiological safety of fresh produce.
University of Maryland, College Park
Dr. Negahban-Azar specializes in the development of systems-level solutions for water and environmental management.
University of Maryland Baltimore
Mr. Pappas’ scholarship explores the nature of property expectations, governmental responsibilities, and private rights in managing resources such as land, energy, water, wildlife, fisheries, and food.
University of Maryland Baltimore
Mr. Percival is internationally recognized as a leading scholar and teacher in environmental law.
University of Arizona
Dr. Ravishankar’s research interests include control of foodborne pathogenic bacteria, survival and prevalence of foodborne pathogens in fresh produce growing environments/organic composts, and stress tolerance responses of foodborne pathogenic bacteria.
University of Arizona
Dr. Rock is a research-driven Water Quality Extension Program specialist throughout Arizona, and works on the evaluation of water quality for the protection of public health as well as promoting water reuse as a safe and practical resource.
University of Maryland, College Park
Dr. Goldstein specializes in environmental health with a focus on environmental microbiology, water quality testing (specifically wastewater and recycled water), and environmental communication.
United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service
Dr. Sharma’s research focuses on the survival, persistence and growth of the bacterial foodborne pathogen Escherichia coli O157:H7 in leafy green pre-harvest environments.
COre DIRECTORS
University of Maryland College Park
Dr. Pop is a computer scientist with over 15 years of experience in bioinformatics, specifically in the analysis of large genomic and metagenomic datasets.
University of Maryland College Park
Dr. Sapkota leads the exposure assessment laboratory at the University of Maryland School of Public Health. He has worked extensively to characterize environmental pollutants that are of concern to human health using state of the art laboratory methods including liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) based approaches.
INTERNATIONAL PROJECT LEADS
Arava Institute of Environmental Studies, Israel
Dr. Lipchin oversees research projects, workshops, and conferences that focus on transboundary water and environmental problems facing Israel, Jordan, and Palestine. His research focuses on water resources, water management, and policy.
University of Alberta, Canada
Dr. Kecinski's research broadly focused on issues around behavioral responses to environmental risk and climate change. Ongoing and previous work in his group looks at the behavioral responses of minority groups to contamination, such as arsenic and lead contaminated water through different exposure routes.
CONSERVE STAFF
Leena Malayil
University of Maryland, College Park
Dr. Leena Malayil is an Assistant Research Professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Health and the Program Manager for the CONSERVE Summer Internship program. She has 10 years of technical expertise conducting field and lab based environmental studies including conceiving study designs, performing sample collection, processing and testing samples, analyzing and visualizing data, and preparing and publishing manuscripts. She recently developed and directed an undergraduate summer virtual internship program for the CONSERVE Center of Excellence (focused on water reuse, food and health).
CONSERVE Collaborators AND SCHOLARS*
SCHOLARS
Sarah Allard
Mary Theresa Callahan
Suhana Chattopadhyay
Jessica Chopyk
Hillary Craddock Kelbick
Rianna Murray
Manashi Paul
Farshid Shoushtarian
Sultana Solaiman
Mayhah Suri
University of Maryland, College Park
COLLABORATORS
New Mexico State University
COLLABORATORS
SCHOLARS
Natalie Brassill
Jessica Dery
Aishwarya Rao
Libin Zhu
SCHOLARS
Cheryl East
Eric Handy
Prachi Kulkarni
United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service
COLLABORATORS
Cary Coppock
COSMOS ID
COLLABORATORS
SCHOLARS
Brienna Anderson
Shani Craighead
Sean Ellis
Samantha Gartley
Tongzhe Li
Olesya Savchenko
Adam Vanore
Huidong Xu
SCHOLARS
Devon Harman
Taylor Lilley
SCHOLARS
Rico Duncan
Derek Foust
Joseph Haymaker
Chanelle White
University of Maryland, Eastern Shore
COLLABORATORS
*CONSERVE Scholars are graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and technicians who are conducting research under a CONSERVE activity.
CONSERVE Staff
Teresa McCoy, Evaluation Coordinator (University of Maryland College Park)
Chenzi Wang, Evaluation (University of Maryland College Park)
Daphne Pee, Evaluation (University of Maryland College Park)
Maurice Rocque, Account Manager (University of Maryland College Park)
CONSERVE Advisory Committee
Ching-Tzone Tien (Maryland Department of the Environment), Chair
Samir Assar (FDA)
Robert Buchanan (UMD)
Tim Ford (Shenandoah University)
Scott Herzberg (Jug Bay Market Garden)
Daniel Kugler (UMD)
Clive Lipchin (Arava)
Melissa Meeker (Water, Environment and Reuse Foundation)
Steve Miller (Town of Manchester)
Clifford Mitchell (Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene)
Sarah Sohn (Future Harvest, CASA)
M. Sundar (Air Liquide)
Jeremy Vanderzyl (Duncan Family Farms)
Rick Ward (Maricopa Agricultural Center)
FORMER TEAM MEMBERS
University of Maryland College Park
Dr. Weinstein is an experienced research development professional, with over 15 years of executive leadership, proposal preparation and project management experience combined with 20 years of laboratory research. She received a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences with a focus on infectious diseases.
Dr. Sarah Allard
Assistant Program Manager
Coordinator, Summer Internship Program
University of Maryland College Park
Dr. Allard has 9 years of research experience focused on the microbial ecology and microbiological safety of fresh produce. She works closely with the CONSERVE team to facilitate collaborative research activities and data sharing, and she coordinates the CONSERVE Summer Internship Program.