Bridging Social Factors & Context in Infectious Disease Modeling: Tiggy Menkir

Tigist (Tiggy) Menkir is a PhD student working with Dr. Caroline Buckee at the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics housed within the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She did her undergraduate training at Princeton University where she received her BA in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology with minors in Global Health and Health Policy and French Language in Culture. She studies infectious disease epidemiology and utilizes machine learning-based methods, spatial statistics, and traditional dynamic models for infectious disease surveillance, with a focus on data-limited settings and marginalized populations. Enjoy!

Transcription

Transcribed by Emma Klein (she/her)

Tiggy: Okay cool um so I did my undergrad at Princeton where I majored in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a lot of people think it’s just like animal or like non human animal centered but I actually spent a lot of my research and academic coursework focused on infectious diseases in human populations and so that’s like what sparked my interest in the infectious disease epidemiology program at Harvard. I did my two year masters and I’m currently in the PhD Program.

Tiggy: At Harvard, I focus on applying quantitative methods to add to existing infectious disease monitoring outbreak and endemic disease reports. So, much my research is really based in settings where data collection is challenging and among communities where data collection and attention is somewhat neglected. I worked on a range of diseases in my long career. Undergrad I focused a bit on meningitis, and then recently in my Master’s, I started work on malaria, continuing to do work on malaria, also did a project in measles, and then now I’ve really pivoted my attention to COVID-19. Yeah and then I try to navigate my role as a modeler epidemiologist by kind of bridging our understandings of social factors and context into these quantitative models of infectious disease spread and reporting. So that’s that, and then a fun fact… I like to dabble in accents, and I love Spanish and French language soap operas on Netflix and other sites.

JP Flores (he/him): That’s so cool yeah, so can you give us you and your accents?

Tiggy: A little sampling of an accent?

JP Flores (he/him): Yeah yeah something simple!

Tiggy: I knew you were going to ask! I can do my British one, let’s see okay.

Tiggy: [Using a British accent] So, I really started working on my British one a long time ago and when I went to England, actually, I was able to fool somebody at the Tesco Express. She was like “What is this?”, and I was like “Yeah I’m actually not from England, I’m from the United States!”. And she was like “What? You got me!”, and I’m like “Yeah that’s true, I mean, I’ve really been working on it so…”, that’s me!

JP Flores (he/him): That’s awesome, that’s awesome yeah! Are you originally from LA because I feel like LA people can’t do accents? You’re not from LA are you? Like did you grow up here?

Tiggy: So I, yeah, I spent and lived a majority of my life here in LA with my mom. But, I have spent a few summers and a couple semesters in Nigeria with my dad, he works at an International Institute as maize breeder. Um so, I spent some time in Nigeria, and it’s an International Institute.. there are people from Nigeria, as well as from so many other countries in Africa and Europe and Asia, and so many different countries so that’s like kind of where the accents started.

JP Flores (he/him): Very cool, yeah so we kind of met through MIDAS.. the MIDAS network and I had the opportunity to partake in the diversity conference that y’all host, so can you tell, you know, tell the audience more about MIDAS and this diversity conference, your role, and why, I guess, you throw this event?

Tiggy: Yeah, of course, so just a quick caveat, I’m a student member of MIDAS, but I’m in no way involved in, like, the MIDAS organizing team. But I can just give, like, a quick description of MIDAS, so it’s the Models of Infectious Disease Agents Study and it’s a consortium that’s aimed at connecting researchers in the infectious disease modeling space, and so they offer webinars, they have like an annual meeting, they facilitate data sharing efforts, and they have a range of programs. And so we worked with them, a couple of us at the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at Harvard, and have reached out to them, because they have been in collaboration previous years, been hosting similar outreach conferences, so we decided that we wanted to do something of that nature this year, but like with the online format and then more interactive in nature, so yeah so we reached out to them and organize this whole event. And so like I was saying, really why I was so motivated to work on this project specifically is because as you see during the pandemic, sometimes a lot of the conversations folks have or some of the news and some of the scientific discourse.. may not be accessible to people outside of the aca like outside of academia, or just outside of the upper echelons of academia. So, we just wanted to offer the opportunity for students to just really engage and the topics and methods that we’ve seen and we talked about work on, um so yeah.

JP Flores (he/him): Yeah no that’s awesome, it was an amazing event and another Occidental student that participated, Mika, is now going to Tufts for a Masters in Infectious Disease!

Tiggy: Oh really, gosh I love to hear that! Wow, that’s awesome! That’s like right next door.

JP Flores (he/him): Yeah right! And anyways, I was curious.. How has the pandemic, you know, affected your research and affected just your overall work?

Tiggy: Yeah so kind of like I was mentioning before, I’ve somewhat shifted much of my research to be like COVID centered, um so I’ve been working on different collaborations and projects, mainly focus on improving our awareness of international imported and local case trajectories when they’re under reporting constraints in some African countries. We did one, two projects, and then also how to explicitly consider racial and ethnic disparities in these trajectories within the US. Um, so I mean, in many ways, I say, I have the same research objectives and like overarching research interest, but now it’s just focused on COVID. Um, yeah.

Tiggy: And um, I haven’t really.. I’ve also spent a lot of time thinking about, you know, COVID related inequities and missing data on social disparities during the pandemic. Um, with like respective vaccination coverage, for example, and how this data could help us better understand these inequities.

JP Flores (he/him): Very cool and it’s so interesting because, with all of these social justice uprisings that have been going on this year… it’s awesome seeing that intersectionality between, you know, the science and sociology of it all.. right? Yeah but away from the science now.. Would you mind painting a picture of who you are and how were you raised, and what your upbringings were like?

Tiggy: Yeah so um I’ve lived a majority of my life in LA like I was mentioning before, but I have um… I say a majority of my life like I’ve had many years of my life but here we are! Anyways, I’ve also lived a bit in Nigeria in an international setting um, and so I kind of have an international oriented perspective because of this. Grounded in LA where I live with my mom, and she’s a Chemistry Professor. Because of this, you know, I find myself somewhat privileged in the sense that because I have a mom who is an academic, she’s been able to guide me so much throughout not just my undergrad experiences, but up until now, in the present, and navigating all the different challenges and issues and just general life, as a graduate student and working in academic space. So yeah, I am Ethiopian American, so that’s also a part of my identity. Um and yeah.

JP Flores (he/him): Yeah that’s awesome. A lot of people talk about, I guess, finding their quote on quote tribes, communities, I was wondering what your support systems were like growing up and how integral that has been for you, especially in STEM, there are some racial disparities there. What were your experiences like, going through your STEM journey and what role did this support kind of have for you?

Tiggy: Yeah so that’s a really good question. I would say that I don’t have like one defined tribe, apart from like the main tribe of my mom and her support. Um but because of what I was telling you before about my experiences living here mainly but also living in Nigeria and then I’ve experienced different types of school settings… I’ve kind of been able to mesh with different communities, but also like what you’re mentioning about being from an underrepresented group in STEM… In undergrad, I tried to specifically connect with organizations that are centered on under-represented minorities, specifically African American and African American women. And so I felt that that support system was really crucial because I went to a predominantly white institution, and so there are so few of us… So these programs are so instrumental! Yeah, and then I think that was a really good foundation for me, before I then transitioned to Harvard.

JP Flores (he/him): I still think that’s so cool how you can just say like I go to Harvard.

JP Flores (he/him): It’s so wild, so wild.

Tiggy: I just like, whenever I have my ID card in public places, I’m just like fanning it so people can see the Harvard part.

JP Flores (he/him): Exactly, exactly.

JP Flores (he/him): And I’m sure like your Harvard email is probably nice to have too.

Tiggy: Yeah definitely, definitely.

JP Flores (he/him): Yeah um but anyways, have you had to, I guess, sacrifice anything to get to where you are now, and do you have any regrets, if not that’s fine. But, I thought that this was a pretty good question to ask, just in case there was.

Tiggy: Yeah I mean I think just talking about mental health and like how I have struggled with my role as an African American woman in a space where people like me, are rarely represented um and so I’ve just been contending with this, and working through this, and grappling with this, and then trying to present myself in a way that I feel that people would be able to really acknowledge who I am and like working so extra to just package myself in this way, I felt like somewhat has affected my mental health. Um, and um, just always trying to work, work, work, work and prove myself and yeah so, that’s just something I’ve just been working through. And, right now just also trying to juggle what I feel is my responsibility, right now is… as an infectious disease epidemiologist and as a student, a young person working with these issues that we see and really bringing a voice to them in our research community. And, but also not trying to go too much into that and, like feel as if I need to carry that fully myself.

JP Flores (he/him): Yeah no, definitely. I mean, it’s so wild to me how underrepresented students in STEM also resonate with that. And a common question that I usually get from younger peers is, do you have any advice for me right, so what advice would you give, I guess, yourself or a younger student, that is historically underrepresented? What advice would you give them early on in their career, or what would you tell yourself early on in your career?

Tiggy: Well, I would say, I think really making a point of identifying your mentors and what you said about your community, so having specific people or groups, you can reach out to… With not just like the academic related questions, but also all the different social issues that you face daily and being able to have this space to talk to people about this, whatever community you’re able to find! And then also, I would say.. kind of related to one of my previous answers, is like not allowing people to dictate.. I mean this is very like a general piece of advice and it’s kind of like I’m still learning out and not do this, but not letting people dictate how you view yourself, because that really takes away your time and energy from really being able to present yourself fully in your work. Yeah I guess those would be my two main pieces of advice.

JP Flores (he/him): Yeah definitely and it’s wild because no one’s perfect at this, really I don’t even think the giants in any science field has this stuff figured out. I think that needs to be acknowledged more.. that people don’t have the answers. Like advice is different and experiences are different!

Tiggy: That’s true, it’s a good point yeah.

JP Flores (he/him): Yeah yeah yes, so we just talked about more of like, I guess, bottom up approach, where individuals as students, like I’m an incoming PhD student and you’re a current PhD student, those are our ideas of giving advice, right. But I guess, my next question is more top down. How do you think we can diversify STEM and implement full inclusion initiatives that better support the students, you know… like put yourself as like the President of Harvard.. I know it’s a big question but do you have any, like, ideas?

Tiggy: Yes, okay I’ll put myself in those shoes. So okay let’s see um I would say, similar to what our goal was for this conference, involving students really early on, with the methods and the research that… and I’m talking specifically about infectious disease modeling, but I believe it can scale to any other area. Talking more generally about efforts to involve students really early on, it can even start at the high school stage but really primarily focus on undergrads. When you start to actually delve into some of these subjects, more in depth, but broadening the awareness and active participation in these methods and in these topic areas, I think, is really important. Because, then it can, so I’m sure so many different students are aware about infectious disease modeling but perhaps not necessarily about how it’s used and through what methods and through what approaches.. and so having different opportunities to allow students to access information about the field and actually apply the topics, I think, is really instrumental. Um so that’s what I’d say there in terms of recruitment, but it’s like two parts: It’s the recruitment and then it’s the retention and so with retention, I think it’s really important that these efforts kind of just don’t immediately taper off like three months into students journey and are regularly updated and re-prioritized, and there’s a there’s a program at our school it’s called.. I don’t remember the exact name, but essentially what it serves to do is to have a regular meeting space for students in the program who are Masters students and then who plan to be doctoral students to learn about the resources that the school offers and how to apply to the doctoral program… which I think is really important because it’s a regular meeting meeting space. So yeah I would emphasize the retention aspect as well.

JP Flores (he/him): Yeah definitely like recruitment and retention, those are the biggest things and more so retention right because you can recruit all you want, and you know, improve diversity, improve the compositional diversity, but what about the inclusivity?

Tiggy: That’s true. Yeah, that is a very good point yeah and then I don’t, I also want to say, like, it’s not just the onus of the students like to find these programs, it’s also the culture and the community, allowing for everyone in the community to regularly engage with these issues so that the culture can be more conducive to supporting all students. It’s a very broad thing, but I mean it’s a very important issue, I think.

JP Flores (he/him): Yeah, definitely! Thank you, President Tiggy! I appreciate that.

Tiggy: Of course!

JP Flores (he/him): So anyways, what advice would you give to the students pursuing the path that you took or infectious disease modeling and I guess, just trying to navigate life in general, like I know this is a.. you kind of touched on this when I asked the advice question, but now more for your path… is there anything you suggest, is there, are there any tips and tricks that you think should be shared for someone trying to pursue a career in infectious disease modeling and such?

Tiggy: Yeah okay, so I would say .. I mean… to everyone would have a different experience, but at least for me .. undergraduate I was given the support through my school to identify research opportunities during the summer that were like, for example I read this paper I spend my first summer working with a professor for a course and that course where I fell in love with infectious disease modeling I was just like… heart eyes everyday in that class! Um but then I just was like okay, you know, can I just you know work for you and just do whatever research during the summer? He said sure, and then he assigned me a postdoc and she helped guide me through the literature and helped me become more familiarized with some of the techniques that they were using and so, then I read this paper.. it was about vaccine refusal and integrating vaccine hesitancy and models. And so, I read this paper that was kind of like a canonical paper on digital epidemiology and using digital epidemiology, to inform understanding of vaccine acceptance, and so I just emailed the first author of that paper, who was in Geneva.. at this campus biotech and I said “Oh, you know I want to do my thesis research, can I go to your lab?” and so, then the school is able to support me and then I went to his lab and was able to do research there, and I just like all these research connections, I think, making an effort to identify specifically what you’re interested in and then engage with various individuals at different levels in the academic space, who are involved in that. And really formulate for yourself like what your specific research interests are so when you reach out to these people it’s not like, Oh, you know I love your work. Like already have an understanding of what you’re interested in, what how you aim to extend on the types of efforts that they’re currently engaging in. I’m not saying it’s easy to do that and that it’s equally accessible but I’m just saying that making those efforts for summer research is really important, and it really connects you because infectious disease modeling .. it’s like it’s a really small community, like everyone knows each other, almost so once you get your foot in .. they’ll connect you everywhere!

JP Flores (he/him): That’s so cool, yeah. So we were able to establish this kind of informal mentorship program at my institution, at Occidental. And I tell my mentees, they’re first years and sophomores, I tell them all the time, like just cold email! It doesn’t hurt to just email and ask! Like just do it, trust me, like what are they gonna do .. not reply? [laughs]

Tiggy: Exactly, yes!

JP Flores (he/him): Like they’re probably just busy … it’s fine!

Tiggy: Right, yeah!

JP Flores (he/him): Yeah, I am so glad I’m hearing that from you too.. just you know, just email and try to get that research experience because you’re also just not going to know what you want to get into unless you do it. Right yeah, you gotta try it.

Tiggy: You gotta try it, yeah! I mean, yeah definitely I’m the cold email proponent, um, and I think like I was saying before, making sure, because sometimes you know they’re so busy, if they just see like a carbon copy type email.. Not like CC, but like you know, the same type of email, they’re just going to, you know, perhaps, save for later or not even look at it, so be very specific with what you aim to do, and why your interests relate to theirs.

JP Flores (he/him): Yeah exactly, so are you good at R? I have to ask this. At the conference like, I know some R right and I was able to follow along but.. I’m a bio stats TA, and right now they’re going through their final projects. And it’s so hard teaching R, especially when you just like to know how to do it instinctually.

Tiggy: Right oh, that’s true oh that’s okay that’s also another good point, um I would say, so the same year I was doing research at my university I had extra time.. so I just like decided to start working in R because that was my sophomore year, I had no exposure to R. So, I had the time during the summer to really delve into R and I think that was really helpful because, like you need that time it, you know, there is like you’re saying a learning curve a bit in the beginning. But once you’re in, you can go far. But that like pre-prep is really important, yeah!

JP Flores (he/him): Yeah I’ve been telling people that it’s so powerful it’s such a good skill to have, it’s so marketable.

Tiggy: It’s definitely marketable.

JP Flores (he/him): You just gotta get through the steep curve, you know.

Tiggy: That’s true, I mean facts, and it also makes you more able to work with other languages as well, because I think my fluency in R helped me a bit with my fluency… I’m not like at the level I am in R but with Python as well, so I think that it’s a really good stepping stone.

JP Flores (he/him): Yeah they’re very similar syntax too, which is the funny part.

Tiggy: Yeah!

JP Flores (he/him): But what did you use to learn R? Did you use R for data science, did you, someone sent me an R for dummies book and I just don’t touch it.

Tiggy: You haven’t touched it?? Oh, my God.

JP Flores (he/him): I just can’t use it. Nah nah, I am gonna do R for Data Science.

Tiggy: I love it, oh my god. I just like, you know, I pieced together all these different like… YouTube and online.. I don’t even know exactly what was… that was a really good question! It was like a hodgepodge of things, yeah.

JP Flores (he/him): Yeah you gotta be resourceful, you know.

Tiggy: Yeah you got to be resourceful, that’s, that’s the key yeah.

JP Flores (he/him): Yeah yeah, I taught myself how to use R using that book and then, just like watching YouTube tutorials and R studio tutorials. Literally all I did.

Tiggy: Yes!

JP Flores (he/him): Anyways, that’s all the science questions, lab questions, I had for you… did you have anything else that you want to add, by chance, when it comes to I don’t know, maybe, how we can be more inclusive, how we can improve diversity, anything like that?

Tiggy: I think, also for our field.. trying to expand the scope of the kinds of questions we’re willing to consider in our research to be cognizant of constraints that people face social pressures and other barriers that marginalized communities face and really account for them in models and just in general research efforts. Yeah that’s something I’ve been trying to talk through with our center, and it’s really important right now with the pandemic because it’s very much it’s really showing you how social context really converges with how we’re seeing the biological aspects manifest.

JP Flores (he/him): Yeah definitely, do you know who Alondra Nelson is?

Tiggy: Alondra Nelson.. I’ve heard of Alondra, but I don’t… she’s a professor or..?

JP Flores (he/him): Yeah, she’s a social scientist, but she’s in the White House office for Science and Technology Policy.

Tiggy: Yes, yes yeah yeah!

JP Flores (he/him): A lot of the stuff you’re saying is directly aligned with what she says. You gotta design your experiments with the thought of the output and who it’s affecting. Like you can just make an experimental design without knowing that. Like you’re just doing it for the sake of doing it!

Tiggy: Yes, yes, exactly oh my gosh! Yeah when I read her statement or something, I’m like yes! This is what we need!

JP Flores (he/him): Yeah I bought her book right after that… I was like yeah I like you, I’m glad you’re on this team.

Tiggy: Gosh yeah, wait her book? Okay now I need to add that to my list, yeah!

JP Flores (he/him): Of course, of course, the social life of DNA. It’s a good one, it’s a good one.

Tiggy: Okay, I love it.

JP Flores (he/him): Yeah I’m a huge fan of the intersectionality between sociology and science, it’s one of the things I’m really passionate about.

Tiggy: Oh that’s great. We need people like you, yes!

JP Flores (he/him): And you, come on!

Tiggy: All of us.

JP Flores (he/him): Yeah.. all of us together!

JP Flores (he/him): Anything else that you’d want to talk about? I can move on to my fun questions now, if you don’t have anything else.

Tiggy: We can, yeah we can move on to the fun questions!

JP Flores (he/him): Okay okay so let’s say you are… you just pulled a Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett and just pulled us out of another pandemic. Right, like Tiggy, you’re on the headlines of everything, like yeah we’re like we’re throwing parties for you with your name everywhere! All right, what is the first song you’re playing to celebrate with your family, friends, you know you just pulled us out of just a catastrophe, what do we, what do we, what are we vibing to right now?

Tiggy: Okay we’re vibing to “Girl Put Your Records On” by Corrine Bailey Rae.

Tiggy: And that’s like the perfect time!

JP Flores (he/him): Yeah, that’s awesome! I can just imagine, just windows down, driving down the street like.. “Girl, put your records on..” [singing]

Tiggy: Yes!

JP Flores (he/him): All right, all right. Good choice! Alright next question, what is your favorite thing to do, outside of science, or outside of modeling or whatever, whatever have you?

Tiggy: Um so I like to read, I also like to write so, um, I’ve written novellas, um, and then I also love to write poetry so recently I’ve kind of been writing poetry that’s aimed at shedding light to some of these issues that we’ve seen in infectious disease modeling.

JP Flores (he/him): So, so, so, I’m hearing that you’re going to be the scientist version of Amanda Gorman? Is that what I’m hearing?

Tiggy: Stop, stop! I’ll be my own self, Amanda will be her own Amanda! Oh, you have the book! JP! I love this library you have here.

JP Flores (he/him): Oh yeah, oh yeah! I love Amanda Gorman, are you kidding me? She’s one of my role models! I pre-ordered that right after I saw her speech, yeah. Sorry, sorry to ruin that

Tiggy: No, no she’s great! Yeah. yeah! Her presence is just um.. fun fact, I’ve met her before actually!

JP Flores (he/him): Oh! I’m so angry because she’s from LA, I want to meet her so bad! Okay, Tiggy, I don’t know if you have any connection to her, but literally.. lock screen! She’s my lock screen with her speech.

Tiggy: Oh are you serious? Oh my god! What? I love it! You really need to meet her now!

JP Flores (he/him): Yeah, yeah! I need to, she’s literally my role model. I don’t know how you’re gonna do it, but anyway possible..

Tiggy: Okay, okay, I am on it! I got you!

JP Flores (he/him): So your favorite thing to do, outside of science, is really tap into your Amanda Gorman and write poetry, that I guess shed light on these issues?

Tiggy: On the science! Yeah, the public health science, mm-hmm.

JP Flores (he/him): Okay, so I grew up in and around LA. I’ve lived in Glendale, Monterey Park, San Gabriel Valley, you know.. I go to Playa del Rey a lot, Playa Vista. What is your favorite food / place to eat or I guess, favorite place to be in LA?

Tiggy: So okay, I’m one of those people who, like it’s really difficult to say my favorite. I like hopping around different places in LA.

JP Flores (he/him): You can say multiple, that’s cool!

Tiggy: Yeah, so I like hopping around different places in LA. So, um, I like Olvera Street.. I’ve been a lot recently. Well, not recently recently because I’ve tried to not, like, go places as much. Um, but, um, Olvera Street and then there’s Little Ethiopia sometimes, um and, just like yeah Marina del Rey. Um, now I have to recall..

JP Flores (he/him): Classic LA but like very cultural LA. Like you have the, like, deep LA roots.. not the tourist LA! Yeah, I love that, I love that.

Tiggy: Yes, yeah that’s a good characterization.

JP Flores (he/him): The cultural roots of LA. Yeah, Olvera Street is one of my favorite places as well. Yeah, we should link up sometime! I would be down to get coffee or just hang out, that would be fun!

Tiggy: Yeah, we should.. yeah, if you are right here, definitely!

JP Flores (he/him): Yeah, when you said you were in LA.. I was like what? I thought you were on the east coast in Boston!

Tiggy: No, no, yeah I pretend to be in Boston!

JP Flores (he/him): Anyways, that’s really all I have, it was meant to be a short and sweet little interview and just really, I guess, probe your mind and then pick your brain about, you know, your perspective and experiences being who you are, you know so.

Tiggy: It’s great chatting with you, you’re a good interviewer!