Randy Kramer Research Group

DURHAM, N.C.—A new paper by a team of Duke researchers examines longstanding environmental justice issues in Lowndes County, Alabama, and presents key findings from an innovative, multi-year collaboration with the local community aimed at addressing and resolving the problems.

The peer-reviewed paper, published Oct. 24 in the journal Local Environment, describes a sanitation system that’s either failing or nonexistent for hundreds of homes in Lowndes County, exposing a legacy of centuries of racial discrimination and government indifference.

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CITATION: “Failing Septic Systems in Lowndes County, Alabama: Citizen Participation, Science, and Community Knowledge,” Elizabeth A. Albright, Catherine Coleman Flowers, Randall A. Kramer and Erika S. Weinthal;  Local Environment, Oct. 24, 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2023.2267066

Randy Kramer presented a talk, “Mobilizing Sustainable Finance for African Elephant Conservation,” at a workshop organized by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Nairobi, Kenya, last month. NSOE alumna Ivonne Higuero (MEM ’92), who is Secretary General of CITES, chaired the workshop. Randy’s talk summarized key findings of a report he prepared to help inform discussions on conservation finance at the 2022 CITES Conference of the Parties being held this week and next in Panama.

As they prepare for retirement, John Bartlett and Randy Kramer reflect on memorable moments from the institute’s early days and its impact on their work

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Vanilla growing near Mandena, Madagascar

As part of several research projects exploring the connections between human health and the environment, the Kramer research group conducted agricultural and health surveys in several villages in the SAVA region of Madagascar between 2018 and 2019.  Early findings from these surveys have been developed into two reports; one on agriculture and another one on  health. These reports help provide an overview of the health challenges and agricultural practices in the SAVA region.

2019 Bass Team

Bass Connections Showcase

Research has documented conflicting associations between land use change and infectious disease risk, with some studies finding that deforestation increases disease risk for humans, while other studies find the opposite pattern.

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Miranda Metz

Miranda Metz  is the recipient of the 2020 Michael Merson Undergraduate Student Leadership Award in Global Health.  Bestowed by the Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI), the award recognizes students who has excell in the classroom and in fieldwork and who demonstrate a strong commitment to global health and health equity through extracurricular activities and leadership.  Miranda Metz is an undergraduate with the Kramer Research Group.

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An interdisciplinary research team recently launched an NIH-supported project aimed at investigating infectious diseases at the human-animal interface in Northeastern Madagascar.  The team will model disease transmission within and across small mammals (rats, bats, and tenrecs), domesticated mammals (cats, cows, pigs, and dogs), and humans by screening humans and animals for a wide range of diseases, undertaking rigorous surveys of people and their environments, and conducting sophisticated mathematical modeling to represent connections between humans and animals in a network framework.

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The theme for the 2019 Triangle Global Health Annual Conference  was One Health: Creating our Shared Future – Humans, Animals, and the Environment.  Michelle Pender presented on Biodiversity, Land Use Change, and Human Health: Evidence from Northeastern Madagascar 

Michelle Pender presents research findings from Madagascar

The close relationship between humans, animals and the environment, rapid changes to the environment through land use and climate change  make it vitally important to understand how ecosystem changes influence biodiversity and human health, and to identify actions that can improve conservation, while also improving human health. We are investigating how human activities alter ecological communities and influence infectious disease risk near Marojejy National Park in northeastern Madagascar.

View the poster here

View conference abstract here

Ivonne Higuero

Ivonne Higuero, a graduate of Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, has been named to a highly prestigious and influential leadership position in biodiversity conservation — secretary-general of the United Nations’ Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). While at Duke, she was a member of the Kramer Research Group.

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Three former Nicholas School of the Environment students have turned the findings of their 2016 Master’s Project, on regional differences in what motivates homeowners to implement energy-efficiency upgrades, into their first journal publication. Master of Environmental Management graduates Jennifer Cole, Jessica McDonald and Xinyan Wen used their group project to write a peer-reviewed paper, “Marketing energy efficiency: perceived benefits and barriers to home energy efficiency,” that was published in the journal Energy Efficiency.  Their project advisor was Randy Kramer.  View full story