Hemali Oza

Hemali Oza is a postdoctoral fellow in the Wolfe Lab and Freeman Research Group in the Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health at Emory University and an IRACDA NIH K-12 Fellow through the Emory FIRST Postdoctoral Fellowship. Her research focuses on infectious disease, WASH, climate resilience, and the water-energy-food nexus, with an emphasis on environmental health interventions that enhance community and household resilience. She has expertise in microbiology, epidemiological analyses, scale development, and community engagement.

Her dissertation developed measurement scales to assess the impact of co-designed water-sensitive interventions on household and community resilience in urban, coastal, and informal settlements in Fiji and Indonesia.

As a postdoctoral fellow, she utilizes wastewater surveillance data to track disease transmission in Georgia and leads an implementation science project examining barriers to wastewater surveillance participation. She also collaborates with Atlanta communities on water quality and flooding concerns to support local advocacy efforts. Beyond her domestic work, Hemali has led international research in Kenya, evaluating how floods and droughts impact household access to water, energy, and food. Her interdisciplinary approach integrates environmental health, epidemiology, and community engagement to inform data-driven public health solutions.