Team Bio

Becky and Amelia are committed to improving human health. Amelia is an economist; Becky is an epidemiologist. Together they teach and conduct research as part of the Global Health Studies Program at Allegheny College. Much of their work involves working closely with undergraduate students to address major global health challenges, including the impact of the Zika virus. Both are mothers, who are seeking both professionally and personally to create a healthier world for their children.

Becky Smullin Dawson

I am an Assistant Professor of Global Health Studies and Biology at Allegheny College. My research and teaching interests, and truly my professional passion, lie at the intersection of public health research and environmental science. Complementing the work of Dr. Darrouzet-Nardi, I conduct disease detective research to understand what causes disease. I've recently become interested in understanding how not knowing what causes a disease impacts human behavior -- do we act differently? change our behaviors as preventative measures? in the absence of information.

At Allegheny College, I teach classes in Epidemiology, Sex and Health, and Global Health Challenges, such as global polio eradication and gun violence. I love teaching and working with student researchers. For the past three years, I have collaborated with more than 20 undergraduate students to complete a community health needs assessment in Crawford County, PA. Our work has been highlighted in the journal Health.

I am excited to involve student researchers and those in my classes in this Zika virus research!

I completed my Master of Public Health degree with a focus on environmental health at Emory University’s Rollin School of Public Health and PhD in epidemiology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). Prior to my PhD studies, I worked at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) in Washington, DC. As the Director of Environmental Health Policy, my work focused on children's health and the environment, as well as mosquito control.

I lead an active lifestyle as a mom of two kids and enjoy running marathons with my husband.

Amelia Darrouzet-Nardi

I am an economist, interested primarily in maternal and child nutrition. I teach in the Global Health Studies Program at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa. Complementing Dr. Dawson’s work as an epidemiologist, I study how people make health-related decisions, and how these decisions aggregate in societies.

At Allegheny College, I teach classes in nutrition, food economics, and methods in global health research and practice. In coursework and as research assistants, my students design efficacious interventions for improving maternal and child nutrition, investigate how current events affect the food economy, analyze real-world data on food security, and explore the multidimensional linkages between health, demographics, the economy, and the environment.

I completed my B.S. in Applied Mathematics and Statistics at Stony Brook University, my M.S. in Agricultural Economics at Iowa State University, and my PhD in Nutrition at Tufts University. While at Iowa State University, I studied global changes in food demand at the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development. I completed my dissertation while living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a U.S. Borlaug Fellow in Global Food Security, focusing on the seasonal and climatic risks to child health, such as vector-borne diseases. My training and research experiences allow me to address global health issues with an interdisciplinary perspective.

I enjoy playing Magic: The Gathering with my husband, watching Charmed, and playing with my two young kids.