I am a physician-scientist trained in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases and a faculty member at Weill Cornell Medicine. I conduct my clinical and translational research and my teaching at the Weill Bugando School of Medicine in Mwanza, Tanzania. I have worked in Tanzania for the past 15 years, gained fluency in the local language (Kiswahili), obtained a Tanzanian medical license, and built collaborations with a study team of Tanzanian research scientists. My research focuses on the relationship between schistosomiasis, mucosal immunity, and control of viral infections in girls and women. Schistosomiasis is a parasitic worm infection that affects over 200 million people worldwide and is a disease of poverty acquired by contact with contaminated fresh water. Another area of focus is the conduct of community-based implementation science research to improve uptake of healthy behavior, and to improve adolescent girls' and women's access to health care, in rural Tanzania.