Associate Professor of Practice
Community, Environment & Policy Department
Biography
Dr. Aminata Kilungo holds a PhD in Soil, Water and Environmental Science, and Microbiology from the University of Arizona. She works with communities in Arizona including the Arizona-Sonora Border region, and in Sub-Saharan Africa on issues related to water security and safety, and environmental health. Her work in Sub-Saharan Africa focuses on finding sustainable holistic approaches to address issues related to water and health, specifically to address waterborne and water related diseases. Some of her work in this area includes working with the World Health Organization (WHO), Tanzanian government agencies, and local governments to improve water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in communities impacted by cholera. Some of her work in Arizona includes evaluation of the environmental health status along the Arizona-Sonora Border region to identify gaps, and to provide recommendations to the Border Environmental Cooperation Commission (BECC) and the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (U.S EPA), on where to focus resources to improve overall health for the border community. Currently, Dr. Kilungo is working with a team of multi-disciplinary scientists from the University of Arizona, to build community resilience, and to improve community’s understanding to water security and safety issues, such as microbial water quality and safety of harvested rainwater for different uses. Before joining the University of Arizona, she worked as a Director of Research and Development for the Sonora Environmental Research Institute (SERI) Inc., a non-profit organization in Tucson. Prior, she worked as a lead environmental scientist contractor for the U.S Army Garrison at Fort Huachuca. Dr. Kilungo also serves on the Federal National Advisory Committee (NAC), to advise the U.S EPA on the implementation of the North American Agreement on Environmental Corporation to improve the environment and the health conditions in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Courses taught
Global Health
Infectious Diseases, Global Health and Development
Public Health in the 21st Century
Research Synopsis
Dr. Kilungo’s research interest focuses on the environment, water and health. She works with different organizations and communities globally to improve access to safe and clean water, sanitation and hygiene; build community resilience especially for the marginalized population to improve their understanding on environmental health, water security and safety; and explore appropriate tools and technologies for the targeted community, so the community themselves can be part of the solution to improve their community’s health. Dr. Kilungo’s long term goals are to be able to build community capacity and resilience so marginalized communities have access to safe and clean water to prevent waterborne and water related infectious diseases, and sustain livelihood in a healthy and sustainable environment.
Research Projects
- Enabling universal access to safe drinking water, hygiene and sustainable sanitation technologies and services for maternal, neonatal and child health improvement in rural communities 2017-2019
- Advancing informal environmental health STEM learning: Co-created citizen science rainwater harvesting in underserved communities 2016-2021
- Improving sanitation and hygiene through the construction of ventilated pit latrines fitted with handwashing facilities in cholera hotspots communities in Tanzania 2016-2017
- Evaluation of environmental health status along the Arizona-Sonora Border region 2015-2017
- A comparison of microbial water quality from dug and drilled wells in the Kilombero region, Tanzania 2011-2012
- Real-time detection of microbial contamination in drinking water using intrinsic fluorescence technology 2011-2012
