Leah Lariscy is an undeniable presence at the University of Georgia College of Public Health. When she’s not skating with the Classic City Roller Derby, Lariscy is the vice president of the Environmental Health Science Graduate Student Organization and a member of the BadDNA Lab and Lipp Lab, under her co-advisors interim department head Travis Glenn and associate dean for academic affairs Erin Lipp. She has served on a faculty search committee, developed and led workshops for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and won the Student Innovation Award for her poster at the 2025 State of the Public’s Health conference.  

Lariscy didn’t start her academic career, however, with the College of Public Health. Originally, she was pursuing a degree in biology. In her third year of undergraduate studies, however, she changed her major to environmental health science.  

“It was everything I had been looking for: Something that allowed me to apply my scientific knowledge to better public health,” said Lariscy.  

Lariscy graduated with a Bachelor of Science in 2020 and eventually returned to the Department of Environmental Health Science as a research technician. She discovered a passion for wastewater epidemiology and wanted to learn more through a doctoral program. Lariscy’s dissertation focuses on using wastewater to gain insights on the spread of infectious diseases, which can fill gaps in clinical surveillance data.   

As a first-generation student, Lariscy said navigating the academic world hasn’t always been easy, but being selected as the recipient of the 2025 Dean Marsha Davis Graduate Fellowship Fund helped reinforce that she’s exactly where she’s meant to be.  

“It also showed me that I’m not alone in this journey, that others have walked this path before me and have done amazing things with their careers,” said Lariscy.  

Dean Marsha Davis knows what it’s like to be the first person in your family to attend college. In honor of her own experiences, Davis established this fellowship fund to provide need-based scholarships for public health graduate students who are also first-generation students.  

“Being the first in your family to go to college can feel both exciting and uncertain,” said Davis. “I created this fellowship to help ensure that talented students like Leah know they belong here and have the support they need to pursue their ambitions in public health. Leah represents exactly the kind of curiosity, dedication, and leadership that will shape the future of our field.” 

“I am so grateful for Dean Davis and how much she cares for students. The financial support is amazing, but the way I’ve been inspired by Dean Davis’s journey is even more impactful,” said Lariscy. “It is incredibly encouraging to see someone who has a similar background to me achieve so much, especially someone who is as kind and thoughtful as she is. She is an excellent role model and someone I think we can all look to for inspiration.”  

Lariscy is set to defend her dissertation in April 2026 and then join Harvard University as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She will be working on new wastewater epidemiology projects around Boston, Massachusetts, as well as internationally.  

This time at the College of Public Health was pivotal in guiding her to the next step in her career.  

“My experiences with CPH have shaped my ability to not only see the bigger picture, which drives my research passions, but also to pay attention to the small details,” said Lariscy. “As public health researchers, recognizing how small-scale changes can have large-scale impacts is an invaluable skill, and I am proud to be part of an organization that fosters these ways of thinking.”  

By Mackenzie Patterson