Latasha Allen is currently a Doctor of Public Health candidate at the Indiana University, Fairbanks School of Public Health and an epidemiologist and active-duty environmental health officer with the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. Her research interests include utilizing the syndemic theory to identify sub-populations within vulnerable communities as an approach for building resilience against extreme weather events.
Allen currently works with the Food and Drug Administration Coordinated Outbreak Response and Evaluation Network as an epidemiologist where she responds to foodborne related outbreaks in collaboration with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
She was previously a disaster epidemiologist within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Secretary, as a part of the staff for the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. Allen has deployed in response to numerous public health emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ebola virus epidemic. She has also deployed in response to several natural disasters, such as Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Allen holds a bachelor’s from the University at Buffalo from the Department of Anthropology with a focus on medical anthropology and a minor focus in medical sociology, a Master of Science in public health from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in Environmental Health with specializations in epidemiology and natural resource management, and an executive master’s degree in emergency and disaster management from Georgetown University.