Josh Colston
Plan-EO Coordinator
Welcome! I’m Josh Colston, Research Assistant Professor at the UVA School of Medicine’s Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health and principal investigator of the Plan-EO initiative. I also teach epidemiology in the Department of Public Health Sciences. See Full NCBI Bibliography
I launched Plan-EO because I believe that scientific evidence can bring about transformative change to the lives of even the most marginalized people. This conviction guides my commitment to public health and social justice and has led me to dedicate my research career to improving understanding of the complex and interrelated health issues affecting families living with limited resources in tropical and lower-income regions of the world.
As an epidemiologist and spatial demographer specializing in environmental and climate exposures, biostatistics, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), I’m fortunate to be studying some of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases - including enteropathogens, COVID-19 and emerging febrile and tick borne illnesses - using satellite, household survey, and surveillance data. This research includes projects funded by NASA, WHO, NIH, CDC and the Bill & Melinda Gate Foundation, mostly carried out under the mentorship of Dr Margaret Kosek.
I have a PhD from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a masters’ degree from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Previously, I spent five years working as a population health analyst for international development agencies in Washington D.C., which led me to travel extensively in Latin America. As a PhD student I was a fellow on the National Science Foundation’s water, climate and health traineeship.
In my spare time I enjoy playing the guitar, going on long train rides and eating spicy seafood.
