Emily Begnel

Emily Begnel is a PhD student in the UW Department of Epidemiology, where she received her MPH in 2017. She also holds a BS in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and a BA in Spanish from Rice University. Prior to her PhD studies, Emily worked as a research coordinator on a portfolio of projects with the Global WACH HIV and Co-Infections Through the Lifecycle scientific priority area. Since 2018, she has supported the Linda Kizazi Study (PIs: Jennifer Slyker, Dalton Wamalwa, John Kinuthia), a prospective cohort of mother-infant pairs in Nairobi, Kenya that will characterize mother-to-child virome transmission and assess whether virome affects infant health and development.

Emily’s research interests include maternal and child health from pregnancy through early childhood, viral infectious diseases, and the synthesis of genomics and epidemiologic data. Her dissertation work is nested in the Linda Kizazi cohort and will examine differences in health outcomes and virome composition between HIV-exposed children not living with HIV and their HIV-unexposed peers.