Dr Folashade Agusto is a trained applied mathematician based in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department at the University of Kansas.  Dr Agusto designs novel epidemic models to gain insight into the emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases of public health importance and how to mitigate the risks they pose to human health. She has designed and analyzed novel models for diseases like Ebola, avian influenza, bovine tuberculosis, Johnes disease,  toxplasmagondii, Chikungunya, and malaria. Dr Agusto’s current works are on modelling tick-borne disease across the Great Plains and understanding human behavior role in transmitting COVID-19. Her outreach program involves capacity building and knowledge transfer across West Africa by organizing summer schools in mathematical epidemiology and ecology in Benin, Senegal, and Nigeria. This summer, she will be running a summer school in Ghana.