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Spotlight Elana Chan

Elana is thrilled that she now gets to contribute to the growing field of wastewater-based epidemiology through data science research.

Elana is a third-year environmental engineering PhD candidate in the Boehm Research Group. Like many people, Elana first learned about wastewater-based epidemiology at the start of the pandemic. She was fascinated by its potential as a reliable public health tool—especially as an environmental engineering and community health student at Tufts University at the time. Elana is thrilled that she now gets to contribute to the growing field of wastewater-based epidemiology through data science research. In her work, she evaluates potential use cases of wastewater monitoring data to understand how the data may be used for public health action. Elana is excited to see how wastewater monitoring continues to evolve and support infectious disease epidemiology!

At Stanford, Elana appreciates the welcoming and supportive graduate student community. She is part of the Graduate Leadership Committee (GLC) within CEE, and she is one of the CEE representatives on the Graduate Student Advisory Committee (GSAC) for the Doerr School. Through GLC and GSAC, Elana moderates town halls for graduate students to voice their feedback about the CEE and Doerr school experience. GLC and GSAC members then co-develop solutions to the issues raised with departmental and school leadership. Be on the lookout for another town hall in spring quarter! Outside of CEE, Elana is a Community Associate (CA) for one of the graduate residences. She fosters well-being and community by planning all sorts of fun, social events alongside a team of amazing humans.

In her free time, Elana enjoys running, reading, crafting (crocheting most recently), and trying new recipes with her friends. She loves meeting new people, so say hi if you see her around!

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