Professor Amy R. Sapkota will become the interim director of the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health on January 2, 2023, taking over the leadership role from Professor Stephen Roth who has served as interim director since 2015.
Dr. Sapkota joined the UMD SPH faculty in 2007, as a founding faculty member of the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health, after completing her MPH from Yale University, her PhD in environmental health sciences from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and her post-doc in environmental microbial genomics at Ecole Centrale de Lyon (Lyon, France). Her research focuses on ensuring the safety of agricultural and municipal water reuse and understanding how environmental exposures impact the human microbiome. Over the past 15 years, she has secured or helped to secure more than $44 million in external funding.
“I am truly honored to lead the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health as we continue to reimagine interdisciplinary research-to-action, teaching and learning along with our partners here at home and across the globe,” Dr. Sapkota, who was recently appointed an MPower Professor, said.
“I am truly honored to lead the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health as we continue to reimagine interdisciplinary research-to-action, teaching and learning along with our partners here at home and across the globe."
Since 2016, Dr. Sapkota has directed the CONSERVE Center of Excellence which focuses on facilitating safe water reuse strategies that will sustain food production in the face of climate change. Since 2018, she has led the UMD Global STEWARDS NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) which provides doctoral students from diverse disciplines across seven schools and colleges with interdisciplinary training focused on innovations at the nexus of food, energy and water (FEW) systems.
With collaborators across UMD and internationally, she is leading the Global FEWture Alliance team that is one of four finalists for the UMD Grand Challenges Institutional Grants program. Their proposal aims to create a UMD-based international alliance focused on alleviating food, energy and water insecurity, protecting environmental and global health and increasing community resilience in a changing climate. Her track record includes leading a multi-national team that rose to the top 100 applicants in the highly competitive MacArthur 100&Change competition in early 2020. As a Fulbright Scholar in Nepal in 2017, she deepened partnerships that have been instrumental in creating these interdisciplinary global teams.
“The greatest public health challenges of our time, including climate change, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, systemic racism, food and water insecurity and antibiotic resistance, transcend academic boundaries and impact every corner of the world,” Sapkota said. “To develop sustainable, equitable solutions from local to global scales, we need to apply systems-based approaches that produce tangible impacts now.”
As the interim director of the school’s Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health, Dr. Sapkota will prioritize rebuilding a sense of connectedness, camaraderie and community as we continue to emerge from the pandemic and leading the transition of the institute into a new department within the SPH.
“I am confident that Dr. Amy Sapkota is the right leader for the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health at this time,” Dean Boris D. Lushniak said. “Her bold vision, research expertise and collaborative spirit will be instrumental in advancing the crucial work of this incredible group of faculty, staff and students.”