Mallory Llewellyn

Current Title: Postdoctoral fellow

Mallory obtained her bachelor’s degree in Physiology with a minor in Chemistry from the University of Washington in Seattle. She worked in clinical research at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center where she used CRISPR and Base Editor technologies to treat blood diseases. She has long been interested in the negative health effects of pollution and drinking contaminated water. This fascination pulled her to Florida to study environmental toxicology in Dr. Baker’s lab. With a PhD in Physiological Sciences, she is quantifying and characterizing microplastics and PFAS in the Great Lakes. This data will inform her laboratory zebrafish study where she will test the effects of ingesting microplastic fibers in combination with PFAS. In her free time, she enjoys gardening, swimming, mushroom hunting, and reading with her cat Bellatrix.

Mackenzie Connell

Current Title: Postdoctoral fellow

Mackenzie joined the WATER lab in 2017 while pursuing her B.S. in public health with a minor in sociology. She then went on to earn a Master of Public Health Degree from Wayne State University with a concentration in public health practice. Mackenzie has had the opportunity to learn about environmental health and contribute to health research in her time with the WATER Lab, Michigan Antibiotic Resistance Reduction Coalition, and Henry Ford Health System. Combining her background and education in Public Health Analytics, Mackenzie built on these foundational skills during her PhD program in Public Health at the University of Florida. Mackenzie has a passion for maternal and reproductive health and will continue to investigate the environmental stressors that affect organisms during critical reproductive windows. When she’s not in the lab, you can find Mackenzie on the water, reading, or enjoying quality time exploring Florida with her husband and dogs, Ari and Pelican.

Alex Haimbaugh

Current Title: Postdoctoral fellow at Black Lab,

Department of Pharmacology

Alex earned her B.S. in neuroscience from the University of Michigan in 2015. During her graduate work at Wayne State University in the Baker Lab, she characterized the gene expression landscape of TCDD-exposed zebrafish testes. She is now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Colorado Anschutz medical campus studying extrachromosomal DNA.

Danielle Meyer

Current Title: Research Assistant Professor, University of Florida

Danielle finished her PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology at Wayne State University in 2021, in Dr. Tracie Baker's WATER lab. During that time, she researched the long-term and multigenerational health effects of developmental exposure to emerging toxicants such as dioxin, lead, and nanoplastics. She loved the WATER lab community and research so much that she moved with them to the University of Florida, continuing ongoing transgenerational research on dioxin- and PFAS- exposed fish. Her future career interests involve scientific communications & writing for government and/or nonprofit sectors. Outside of the world of science, Danielle likes to spend time with her friends & family, listening to opera, watching Broadway shows, and planning trips on Atlas Obscura.

Jessica Phillips

Current Title: Assistant Program Director

Assistant Professor - Clinical

Wayne State University

Nurse Anesthesia

Jessica is currently the Assistant Program Director of the Nurse Anesthesia Program and a practicing Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) at Wayne State University. In 2021, she earned her Ph.D. in Pharmacology at Wayne State University, after a Master of Science in Nurse Anesthesia in 2018 and a major in Nursing and Psychology from University of Michigan Ann Arbor in 2012 and 2011 respectively. Her doctoral research in WATER lab explored the transgenerational effects of pharmaceuticals within the environment. Outside of the lab, she enjoys reading, music, cuddling with all her animals (cats, dogs and horses oh my!) and traveling.

Chia-Chen Wu

Current Title: Assistant Professor

Chia-Chen received her Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering at the University of Michigan and joined the WATER lab in the Fall of 2019. While applying her previous bioinformatics and statistics skills, she used zebrafish as a model to study the relationship between gut and drinking water microbiome. She also has been studying the effect of chemical exposures on aged populations. Starting in Aug 2022, she becomes an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Environmental Engineering, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University at Hsinchu City in Taiwan. Her research will be applying environmental microbiology and the zebrafish model to study the effects of low-level environmental contaminants on aquatic life and human health.