Kate Vavra-Musser

Kate Vavra-Musser

PhD Candidate in Population, Health, and Place at the University of Southern California Spatial Sciences Institute

Talks and presentations

Soil Lead Source Contribution in a Complex Urban Residential Area

February 26, 2021

Poster Presentation, Los Angeles Geospatial Summit, Los Angeles, CA

During the 2021 Los Angeles Geospatial Summit I also presented a poster on my ongoing work exploring the impact of multiple sources of potential lead contamination on soil lead in a complex urban residential area. This work comprised the first component of my doctoral dissertation research and was carried out under the guidance of my dissertation co-advisors Jill Johnston and Dr. An-Min Wu of the University of Southern California.

Older Popluations and Increased Heat in the United States

February 26, 2021

Paper Presentation, Los Angeles Geospatial Summit, Los Angeles, CA

During the 2021 Los Angeles Geospatial Summit I gave a lightening talk with my co-author Emily Serman. Our talk focused on our recent work, carried out with Dr. Jennifer Ailshire of the University of Southern California, on the combined threat of both increasing heat days and increasing older population in the United States. As older populations tend to have a higher risk of adverse health impacts due to heat but also have a different spatial distribution compared to the general population, it is essential to characterize the risk of future extreme heat to this population. In addition, older populations in the United States tend to be clustered in regions associated with high heat and increasing heat.

Spatial Data Applications in Environmental Health

November 12, 2019

Talk, University of Southern California GIS Day, Los Angeles, CA

As part of the opening presentations for the 2019 GIS Day celebrations and events held at the University of Southern California, I presented a talk on applications for spatial data in the environmental health sciences, with a focus on my ongoing work studying the spatial distribution of soil lead levels in urban environments.

Geospatial Data: Introduction to Data Types, QGIS, and Exploring Census Data in R

January 31, 2019

Workshop, School of Data Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California

During the inaugural Los Angeles School of Data hosted by Data + Donuts LA I co-taught a ninety-minute introductory workshop on spatial data in R and QGIS with Andy Rutkowski, the visualization specialist with the University of Southern California libraries. The workshop, and School of Data as a whole, was geared toward Los Angeles civic employees with the goal of promoting data literacy and analysis skills.