Kelly Schenk

I am a current Ph.D. student in the Sagan Friant’s Risk Laboratory with interests in public health, infectious disease ecology, and anthropological methods. Prior to coming to Penn State, I completed my bachelor's degree in Anthropology and my Master of Public Health in Infectious Disease and Microbiology at the University of Pittsburgh.

I have previously worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Health (enteric disease and harmful algal bloom epidemiology);  the University of Pittsburgh's Tufts Tick Lab (tick-borne disease ecology field and laboratory methods); and as a consultant for projects on emergency preparedness in public health. In 2025, I completed a Council for State and Territorial Epidemiology’s Applied Epidemiology Fellowship (CSTE AEF) at the Minnesota Department of Health’s Zoonotic Diseases Unit, where I focused on occupational exposures to H5N1 avian influenza, anthrax, and enteric infections.