Virginia Tech® home

Korine N. Kolivras

Professor
Korine N. Kolivras
201 Wallace Hall
korine@vt.edu
540-231-5514

Specialities:

  • Health and medical geography
  • Climate and health
  • Environmental variability and disease emergence
  • Public health applications of geospatial techniques

I am an environmental geographer with specialization and expertise in medical geography and the examination of links between environmental variability and human health. My main research thread focuses on emerging infectious diseases and the underlying processes that explain their distributions and diffusion. In particular, I have examined Lyme disease’s southward emergence into Virginia for the past ten years, with a specific focus on the potential role of land cover. While I continue to engage with emerging infectious diseases, I have recently become part of a trans-disciplinary team examining land cover change and human health impacts in Central Appalachia.

Courses Recently Taught:

  • Medical Geography and Advanced Medical Geography (GEOG 4074/5074)
  • Geographic Theory & Research (GEOG 5014)
  • Health and the Global Environment (GEOG 5214)

Recent Publications:

*student collaborator

Weaver, E.*, K.N. Kolivras, R.Q. Thomas, V.A. Thomas, and K.M. Abbas. 2020. Environmental factors affecting the ecological niche of Coccidioides species and spatial dynamics of valley fever in the United States. Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology 32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sste.2019.100317.

Stevens, L.K.*, K.N. Kolivras, Y. Hong, V.A. Thomas, J.B. Campbell, and S.P. Prisley. 2019. Future Lyme disease risk in the south-eastern United States based on projected land cover. Geospatial Health 14: 153-162.

Xie, Y., L. Xu, J. Li, X. Deng, Y. Hong, K.N. Kolivras, and D. Gaines. 2019. Spatial variable selection and an application to Virginia Lyme disease emergence. Journal of the American Statistical Association. https://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.2018.1564670.

Sherry, J.*, L. Juran, K.N. Kolivras, L.H. Krometis, and E.J. Ling. 2019. Perceptions of water services and innovation to improve water services in Tanzania. Public Works Management & Policy 24(3): 260-283. https://doi.org/10.1177/1087724X18815486.

Weaver, E.* and K.N. Kolivras. 2018. Investigating the relationship between climate and valley fever (coccidioidomycosis). EcoHealth 15(4): 840-852.

Chanda, E., M. Arshad, A. Khaloua, W. Zhang, J. Namboze, P. Uusiku, A.H. Angula, K. Gausi, D. Tiruneh, Q.M. Islam, K.N. Kolivras, and U. Haque. 2018. An investigation of the Plasmodium falciparum malaria epidemic in the Zambezi region of Namibia in 2016. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 112(12): 546-554.

Krometis, L.H., J. Gohlke, K.N. Kolivras, E. Satterwhite, S.W. Marmagas, and L.C. Marr. 2017. Environmental health disparities in the Central Appalachian region of the United States. Reviews in Environmental Health 32(3): 253-266.

Bandzuh, J.T.*, L. Juran, K.N. Kolivras, and A. Wallis. 2017. Local perceptions of measures to control Aedes mosquitoes and mosquito-borne diseases in Puntarenas and San José, Costa Rica. Journal of Latin American Geography 16(2): 139-162.

Juran, L., J. Trivedi, and K.N. Kolivras. 2017. Considering the ‘public’ in public health: popular resistance to the Smallpox Eradication Programme in India. Indian Journal of Medical Ethics 2(2): 104-111.

Seukep, S.E.*, K.N. Kolivras, Y. Hong, J. Li, S.P. Prisley, J.B. Campbell, D.N. Gaines, and R.L. Dymond. 2015. An examination of the demographic and environmental variables correlated with Lyme disease emergence in Virginia. EcoHealth 12(4): 634-644.

Li, J., K.N. Kolivras, Y. Hong, Y. Duan*, S.E. Seukep*, S. Prisley, J. Campbell, D. Gaines. 2014. Spatial and temporal emergence pattern of Lyme disease in Virginia. American Journal of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene. 91(6): 1166-1172.

Recent Grants:

National Institutes of Health
2018-2020. “Spatiotemporal analysis of adverse birth outcomes in Central Appalachia.” Julia Gohlke (PI), Korine Kolivras, Linsey Marr, Leigh-Anne Krometis, and Shyam Ranaganathan (co-PIs). $425,750.

Powell River Project
2017-2018. “Zooming In On Adverse Birth Outcomes in Coalfield Regions of Central Appalachia.”  Julia Gohlke (PI), Korine Kolivras, and Leigh-Anne Krometis (co-PIs). $19,940.

National Science Foundation 
2011-2013. “Environmental Variability and Disease Emergence: Spatial Patterns of Lyme Disease Emergence in Virginia.”  Korine Kolivras (PI), James Campbell, David Gaines, Yili Hong, and Stephen Prisley (co-PIs). $199,998.

CV