We would like to congratulate Carol Zavaleta, now a PhD Candidate, on her successful completion of the comprehensive examination process earlier today. Carol is a Medical Doctor, and holds a Master's degree on Control of Tropical and Infectious Diseases from Cayetano Heredia University in Peru. She oriented her clinical and research practice to work with remote rural communities in the Peruvian Amazon, and has interest in the use of social sciences and epidemiology to understand the risks and determinants of health among indigenous people. After her participation as a Peruvian National coordinator of IHACC-Peru in the early years of the project, she found that not only biological, but social and environmental factors need to be understood in order to improve the health situation of native communities. Since 2012, she has moved to Montreal to complete her PhD with the Geographic and Environmental Epidemiology Lab at McGill, her work continuing to contribute to the IHACC project research. Her thesis work focuses on the vulnerability of Shawi Indigenous people to food insecurity in the Peruvian Amazon, and seeks to identify opportunities for adaptation to climate change in this context.
We look forward to more of Carol's work and wish her the best of luck in the completion of her PhD thesis!
