Associate Professor of Practice, Public Health | Member of the Graduate Faculty
Dr. Aminata Kilungo holds a PhD in Soil, Water and Environmental Science, and Microbiology from the University of Arizona. She works with communities in Arizona including the Arizona-Sonora Border region, and in Sub-Saharan Africa on issues related to water security and safety, and environmental health. Her work in Sub-Saharan Africa focuses on finding sustainable holistic approaches to address issues related to water and health, specifically to address waterborne and water related diseases. Some of her work in this area includes working with the World Health Organization WHO) Tanzanian government agencies, and local governments to improve water, sanitation and hygiene WASH) in communities impacted by cholera. Some of her work in Arizona includes evaluation of the environmental health status along the Arizona-Sonora Border region to identify gaps, and to provide recommendations to the Border Environmental Cooperation Commission BECC) and the U.S Environmental Protection Agency U.S EPA) on where to focus resources to improve overall health for the border community. Currently, Dr. Kilungo is working with a team of multi-disciplinary scientists from the University of Arizona, to build community resilience, and to improve community’s understanding to water security and safety issues, such as microbial water quality and safety of harvested rainwater for different uses. Before joining the University of Arizona, she worked as a Director of Research and Development for the Sonora Environmental Research Institute SERI) Inc. a non-profit organization in Tucson. Prior, she worked as a lead environmental scientist contractor for the U.S Army Garrison at Fort Huachuca. Dr. Kilungo also serves on the Federal National Advisory Committee NAC) to advise the U.S EPA on the implementation of the North American Agreement on Environmental Corporation to improve the environment and the health conditions in the United States, Canada and Mexico.