Mahfuza Islam

PhD Student,University of California

Mahfuza Islam holds a PhD in Environmental Health Science from the School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, USA. She has completed her BSc. and MSc. in “Food and Nutrition” with a Master's of Public Health. She worked in Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), Bangladesh, as Senior Research Manager and in the International Center for Diarrheal Disease and Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) as Assistant Scientist, and has 15 years of experience in public health and research in Bangladesh. Mahfuza has led several studies, including a large trial on water, sanitation, hygiene, and other environmental issues in Bangladesh, both in urban and rural settings. She was involved in working with multidisciplinary teams on a variety of study components and led studies to improve drinking water quality, to reduce fecal contamination from the domestic environment, and to evaluate child cognitive development. Her research has been published in many international peer-reviewed journals, and she presented her research findings at both national and international conferences. She is interested in conducting environmental studies to find underutilized routes of infectious disease transmission in Bangladesh and other developing nations. In order to enhance public health, she seeks to provide evidence-based solutions that are accessible, sustainable, and safe for policymakers, development organizations, and donors to use.