Sarah L McKune

Sarah L McKune,

RES ASO PROF

Department: Department of Environmental and Global Health
Business Phone: (352) 273-9449
Business Email: smckune@ufl.edu

About Sarah L McKune

Sarah L. McKune, MPH, Ph.D. is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Global Health and the Center for African Studies. She holds a B.A. in French and Sociology from Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C., and earned a Master’s in Public Health from Emory University in 2002. She completed a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Ecology at the University of Florida’s School for Natural Resources and the Environment in 2012 and was a Post-Doctoral Fellow for a collaborative effort between UF and the CGIAR’s collaborative research program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS).

Dr. McKune joined PHHP in 2013 as the Director of Public Health Programs, a position from which she ran the campus and online MPH and Public Health Certificate programs for the College. In 2016, she joined the Department of Environmental and Global Health in a joint appointment with the Center for African Studies at the University of Florida. She is affiliate faculty in the School for Natural Resources and the Environment and advises students from a variety of units across campus, including Sustainable Development, Anthropology, Food and Resource Economics, Medical Geography, and Sociology, as well as those operated by EGH, including Public Health and One Health.

Accomplishments

Graduate Education Diversity Champion Award
2021-2022 · University of Florida, Graduate School
International Educator of the Year
2020 · University of Florida

Teaching Profile

Courses Taught
2016-2022
PHC6764 Global Public Health and Development I
2017-2021
LAS6943 Development Theory and Practice in Latin America
2017-2021
AFS6305 Development Theory and Practice Intro
2017-2024
PHC7979 Advanced Research
2017-2018,2020
AFS6905 Individual Work in African Studies
2017-2024
PHC7980 Research for Doctoral Dissertation
2019-2020
PHC6917 Supervised Research Project
2013-2021
PHC6946 Public Health Internship
2011-2012,2017-2024
HSC4970 Public Health and Health Professions Senior Honors Thesis
2013-2021
PHC6601 Seminar in Contemporary Public Health Issues
2020,2022-2024,2024
PHC6947 Environmental and Global Health Capstone Experience
2013-2017,2019-2022,2021-2022
PHC6937 Special Topics in Public Health
2018-2019,2021-2024
GMS6847 Translational Research and Therapeutics: Bench, Bedside, Community, & Policy
2018
ANG7980 Research for Doctoral Dissertation
2018
ABE7979 Advanced Research
2015-2017
PHC6945 Public Health Practicum
2017,2022-2023
PHC6722 Environmental and Global Health Research Methods Rotation
2010-2012,2014-2015
PHC4101 Public Health Concepts
2014
HSC4930 Special Topics
2012
PHC3440 Global Public Health
2011
HSC3801 Clinical Observation / Health Care Volunteer Work
2022-2023
PHC6941 MPH Applied Practice Experience
2024
HSC4913 Supervised Research Experience

Research Profile

Dr. McKune’s background in development informs her research, most of which is applied and focuses on global health nutrition and food security. She has significant experience in project design, implementation, training facilitation, and monitoring and evaluation. Her research utilizes mixed methodologies, both quantitative and qualitative in nature, and seeks to explain the complex, system dynamics that affect child growth and nutritional outcomes, including factors such as household hygiene and sanitation, livestock ownership, climate change, and gender dynamics within the household. For the past 20 years she has worked with global health development programs, largely in the West African Sahel, but also in Nepal, Haiti, Uganda, and Ethiopia. She serves as the Health and Human Nutrition Cross Cutting Theme leader for the USAID Feed the Future Livestock System Innovation Laboratory, working with an interdisciplinary team of scientists to improve the nutrition of children under five and pregnant and lactating women through increased consumption of animal source foods.

Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID)

0000-0002-3646-5921

Publications

2024
Gender, culture, and dietary diversity among livestock keepers in Karamoja, Uganda
Social Sciences & Humanities Open. 9 [DOI] 10.1016/j.ssaho.2024.100836.
2023
Prevalence and Load of the Campylobacter Genus in Infants and Associated Household Contacts in Rural Eastern Ethiopia: a Longitudinal Study from the Campylobacter Genomics and Environmental Enteric Dysfunction (CAGED) Project.
Applied and environmental microbiology. 89(7) [DOI] 10.1128/aem.00424-23. [PMID] 37310259.
2023
Spatio-temporal patterns of malaria in Nepal from 2005 to 2018: A country progressing towards malaria elimination.
Spatial and spatio-temporal epidemiology. 45 [DOI] 10.1016/j.sste.2023.100576. [PMID] 37301591.
2023
The Importance of Meat for Cognitive Development
Meat and Muscle Biology. 5(3) [DOI] 10.22175/mmb.13040.
2023
The infected and the affected: A longitudinal study of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on schoolchildren in Florida.
Frontiers in public health. 11 [DOI] 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1003923. [PMID] 36969651.
2023
Women’s empowerment and child nutrition in a context of shifting livelihoods in Eastern Oromia, Ethiopia
Frontiers in Nutrition. 10 [DOI] 10.3389/fnut.2023.1048532. [PMID] 37457972.
2022
Antigen vs RT-PCR Tests for Screening Quarantined Students in Florida During the COVID-19 Pandemic SARS-CoV-2 Delta Variant Surge.
JAMA pediatrics. 176(5):525-526 [DOI] 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2022.0080. [PMID] 35254393.
2022
Beyond the Gender of the Livestock Holder: Learnings from Intersectional Analyses of PPR Vaccine Value Chains in Nepal, Senegal, and Uganda
Animals. 12(3) [DOI] 10.3390/ani12030241. [PMID] 35158565.
2022
Chronic undernutrition and adolescent school performance in central Ethiopia
African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development. 22(4):20102-20120 [DOI] 10.18697/ajfand.109.20525.
2022
Dietary animal source food across the lifespan in LMIC
Global Food Security. 35 [DOI] 10.1016/j.gfs.2022.100656.
2022
Household decision-making, women’s empowerment, and increasing egg consumption in children under five in rural Burkina Faso: Observations from a cluster randomized controlled trial
Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. 6 [DOI] 10.3389/fsufs.2022.1034618.
2022
Socioecological predictors of breastfeeding practices in rural eastern Ethiopia.
International breastfeeding journal. 17(1) [DOI] 10.1186/s13006-022-00531-3. [PMID] 36578078.
2022
Sustainability and scalability of egg consumption in Burkina Faso for infant and young child feeding.
Frontiers in nutrition. 9 [DOI] 10.3389/fnut.2022.1096256. [PMID] 36712530.
2022
Unravelling the reservoirs for colonisation of infants with Campylobacter spp. in rural Ethiopia: protocol for a longitudinal study during a global pandemic and political tensions
BMJ Open. 12(10) [DOI] 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061311. [PMID] 36198455.
2022
Who Has Access to Livestock Vaccines? Using the Social-Ecological Model and Intersectionality Frameworks to Identify the Social Barriers to Peste des Petits Ruminants Vaccines in Karamoja, Uganda.
Frontiers in veterinary science. 9 [DOI] 10.3389/fvets.2022.831752. [PMID] 35296060.
2021
Benefits and Risks of Smallholder Livestock Production on Child Nutrition in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.
Frontiers in nutrition. 8 [DOI] 10.3389/fnut.2021.751686. [PMID] 34778344.
2021
Gender and intersectional analysis of livestock vaccine value chains in Kaffrine, Senegal
PLOS ONE. 16(7) [DOI] 10.1371/journal.pone.0252045. [PMID] 34197467.
2021
Investigating the Conceptual Plurality of Empowerment through Community Concept Drawing: Case Studies from Senegal, Kenya, and Nepal
Sustainability. 13(6) [DOI] 10.3390/su13063166.
2021
Measurement and sampling error in mixed-methods research for the control of Peste des Petits Ruminants in the Karamoja subregion of Northeastern Uganda: A cautionary tale.
Preventive veterinary medicine. 196 [DOI] 10.1016/j.prevetmed.2021.105464. [PMID] 34538665.
2021
Psychosocial Health of K-12 Students Engaged in Emergency Remote Education and In-Person Schooling: A Cross-Sectional Study
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 18(16) [DOI] 10.3390/ijerph18168564. [PMID] 34444312.
2021
Psychosocial health of school-aged children during the initial COVID-19 safer-at-home school mandates in Florida: a cross-sectional study
BMC Public Health. 21(1) [DOI] 10.1186/s12889-021-10540-2. [PMID] 33781220.
2021
SARS-CoV-2 Positivity on or After 9 Days Among Quarantined Student Contacts of Confirmed Cases.
JAMA. 325(15):1561-1562 [DOI] 10.1001/jama.2021.2392. [PMID] 33605978.
2021
Setting a research agenda to improve community health: An inclusive mixed-methods approach in Northern Uganda.
PloS one. 16(1) [DOI] 10.1371/journal.pone.0244249. [PMID] 33411706.
2021
The Un Oeuf study: Design, methods and baseline data from a cluster randomised controlled trial to increase child egg consumption in Burkina Faso.
Maternal & child nutrition. 17(1) [DOI] 10.1111/mcn.13069. [PMID] 32770664.
2020
Behavior Change, Egg Consumption, and Child Nutrition: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.
Pediatrics. 146(6) [DOI] 10.1542/peds.2020-007930. [PMID] 33239474.
2020
Campylobacter Colonization, Environmental Enteric Dysfunction, Stunting, and Associated Risk Factors Among Young Children in Rural Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study From the Campylobacter Genomics and Environmental Enteric Dysfunction (CAGED) Project.
Frontiers in public health. 8 [DOI] 10.3389/fpubh.2020.615793. [PMID] 33553097.
2020
Chicken eggs, childhood stunting and environmental hygiene: an ethnographic study from the Campylobacter genomics and environmental enteric dysfunction (CAGED) project in Ethiopia.
One health outlook. 2 [DOI] 10.1186/s42522-020-00012-9. [PMID] 33829128.
2020
Co-occurrence of Campylobacter Species in Children From Eastern Ethiopia, and Their Association With Environmental Enteric Dysfunction, Diarrhea, and Host Microbiome.
Frontiers in public health. 8 [DOI] 10.3389/fpubh.2020.00099. [PMID] 32351922.
2020
Community engagement and building trust to resolve ethical challenges during humanitarian crises: experience from the CAGED study.
Conflict and health. 14 [DOI] 10.1186/s13031-020-00313-w. [PMID] 33042218.
2019
Animal source foods: Sustainability problem or malnutrition and sustainability solution? Perspective matters
Global Food Security. 25 [DOI] 10.1016/j.gfs.2019.100325.
2019
Animal-sourced foods for improved cognitive development.
Animal frontiers : the review magazine of animal agriculture. 9(4):50-57 [DOI] 10.1093/af/vfz039. [PMID] 32002274.
2019
Climate-Driven Adaptation, Household Capital, and Nutritional Outcomes among Farmers in Eswatini.
International journal of environmental research and public health. 16(21) [DOI] 10.3390/ijerph16214063. [PMID] 31652699.
2019
Sustainable livestock systems to improve human health, nutrition, and economic status.
Animal frontiers : the review magazine of animal agriculture. 9(4):39-50 [DOI] 10.1093/af/vfz041. [PMID] 32002273.
2019
The livestock vaccine supply chain: Why it matters and how it can help eradicate peste des petits Ruminants, based on findings in Karamoja, Uganda.
Vaccine. 37(43):6285-6290 [DOI] 10.1016/j.vaccine.2019.09.011. [PMID] 31526623.
2018
Community-based reports of morbidity, mortality, and health-seeking behaviours in four Monrovia communities during the West African Ebola epidemic.
Global public health. 13(5):528-544 [DOI] 10.1080/17441692.2016.1208262. [PMID] 27463979.
2018
Household remoteness and patterns of food production, consumption and acquisition in Tajikistan
.
2018
Reaching the end goal: Do interventions to improve climate information services lead to greater food security?
. 22:22-41
2017
Community-based Health Needs Assessment in Léogâne and Gressier, Haiti: Six Years Post-Earthquake
.
2017
Perceptions of Vaginal Illness Related to Water Quality in the Coastal Ouest Region of Haiti
.
2017
The Opposite of Denial: Social Learning at the Onset of the Ebola Emergency in Liberia.
Journal of health communication. 22(sup1):59-65 [DOI] 10.1080/10810730.2016.1209599. [PMID] 28854129.
2015
Climate change through a gendered lens: Examining livestock holder food security
. 6:1-8
2015
Climate Change Through a Gendered Lens: Examining Livestock Holder Food Security
Global Food Security-Agriculture Policy Economics and Environment. 6:1-8 [DOI] 10.1016/j.gfs.2015.05.001.
2015
Climate Change Through a Gendered Lens: Examining Livestock Holder Food Security
Global Food Security-Agriculture Policy Economics and Environment. 6:1-8 [DOI] 10.1016/j.gfs.2015.05.001.
2015
Community-centered responses to Ebola in urban Liberia: the view from below.
PLoS neglected tropical diseases. 9(4) [DOI] 10.1371/journal.pntd.0003706. [PMID] 25856072.
2015
Correction: Community-centered responses to Ebola in urban Liberia: the view from below.
PLoS neglected tropical diseases. 9(5) [DOI] 10.1371/journal.pntd.0003767. [PMID] 25951327.
2013
Pastoralists Under Pressure: Double Exposure To Economic and Environmental Change in Niger
Journal of Development Studies. 49(12):1711-1727 [DOI] 10.1080/00220388.2013.822067.
2008
Health-Related Quality of Life in a National Sample of Caregivers: Findings From the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System
Journal of Happiness Studies. 9(4):559-575 [DOI] 10.1007/s10902-008-9089-2.
2008
The effect of caregiving on preventive care for people with disabilities.
Disability and health journal. 1(1):51-7 [DOI] 10.1016/j.dhjo.2007.11.005. [PMID] 21122711.

Grants

Aug 2022 ACTIVE
DOD Minerva grant: Social and institutional determinants of vulnerability and resilience to climate hazards in the African Sahel
Role: Co-Project Director/Principal Investigator
Funding: US AIR FORCE RESEARCH LABORATORY
Oct 2020 ACTIVE
Livestock Systems Innovation Lab (LSIL) Extension
Role: Project Manager
Funding: US AGCY INTL DEV
Mar 2019 – Aug 2023
Advancing women's participation in livestock vaccine value chains in Nepal, Uganda & Senegal
Role: Co-Project Director/Principal Investigator
Funding: INTL DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH CENTRE
Nov 2018 – Mar 2024
Exposure Assessment of Campylobacter Infections in Rural Ethiopia (EXCAM)
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION
Nov 2017 – Dec 2023
EQUIP – Strengthening smallholder livestock systems for the future
Role: Co-Project Director/Principal Investigator
Funding: BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION
Apr 2017 – Jun 2021
OoR CTSI Institutional Matching Support
Role: Project Manager
Funding: UF DIV OF SPONSORED RES MATCHING FUNDS
Oct 2015 – Dec 2021
Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems
Role: Project Manager
Funding: US AGCY INTL DEV

Education

PhD Interdisciplinary Ecology
2012 · University of Florida
MPH Global Health
2002 · Emory University
MA French and Sociology
1999 · Wofford College

Contact Details

Phones:
Business:
(352) 273-9449
Emails:
Business:
smckune@ufl.edu
Addresses:
Business Mailing:
PO Box 100188
GAINESVILLE FL 32610
Business Street:
1225 CENTER DR RM 4160
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
GAINESVILLE FL 326103007

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