Biographical Information:
My academic interests are concentrated in understanding how and why the landscape modifications and the resulting human-environment interactions influence human health status. My area of work by now is Ecuador, specifically the Ecuadorian Amazon. In my current research I seek to 1. Understand how land cover land use change and rural inhabitants' mobility have shaped the ecology of anopheles mosquitoes and created malaria risk areas in the NEA, and 2. Analyze why the agricultural settlers' daily practices and their built environment have not buffered them from malaria prevalence. 3. Why does malaria continue affecting the rural settlers' health in the Agricultural frontier of the NEA despite the various anti-malaria campaigns launched by the Ecuadorian government since 1948?

My theoretical framework that I use for my analysis is: Land use and infectious diseases, Cultural ecology of diseases, and Political Ecology of health policies. The tools that I work with for performing Spatial Analysis are: Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems, as well as statistics, and descriptive historical analysis. I also use qualitative research methods like focus groups, participatory mapping, and semi-structured interviews.

In addition, I am involved in two research project proposals about the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, lead by a group of professors of the Geography, Anthropology, and Sociology departments of UNC, Chapel Hill. One is related with: the Social Aspects of the Galapagos such as governance, environment, resource access and livelihood in the islands. The second is related with the Dynamics of Land use land cover change of human-environment interactions in Galapagos.