CMU Faculty

Rachel Krause

Associate Professor of Biology

Rachel's teaching and research grow out of her interest in ecology, parasitology, the environment, and global health. In the past, she has worked on issues of salmon habitat quality in streams in British Columbia, and the co-stressors of water pollution and parasite infections on behaviour of fishes in the St. Lawrence River around Montreal, Quebec. Currently, she is working with colleagues at the Freshwater Insitute of Fisheries and Oceans Canada to document the parasite community of the local threatened fish, the Carmine Shiner, to better understand the combined stressors of infection and heat stress. Rachel is also interested in links between the environmental transmission risks and human parasite infections. In particular, she has examined the combined impacts of malnutrition and environmentally-transmitted intestinal infections on growth of preschool children in rural, subsistence farming communities in Panama and other rural, developing country contexts. She maintains a research and teaching program in Panama in collaboration with the University of Panama's Laboratorio de Investigaciones en Parasitología Ambiental (Laboratory for Research in Environmental Parasitology).

Rachel enjoys collaborative research and has worked on research and monitoring projects with collaborators at A Rocha Canada (a Christian environmental NGO),  the B.C. Ministry of Environment, Environment Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Panama Ministry of Health, and the University of Panama. She also has a strong interest in mentoring undergraduate student researchers.

Rachel holds a BSc in Environmental Sciences from the University of British Columbia, a MSc in Biology from Concordia University (Montreal), and a PhD in Parasitology from McGill University, where she was also affiliated with the McGill School of Environment and held a graduate fellowship at the Institute for Health and Social Policy.

Rachel grew up in British Columbia's Fraser Valley.

Areas of Teaching

General Biology, Ecology, Evolution, Global Health

Education

PhD, McGill University, 2015; MSc, Concordia University, 2009; BSc (Hon.), University of British Columbia, 2006

Work in Detail

Teaching

Introductory Biology, Ecology, Evolution, Global Health, Quantitative Methods in Ecology, Invertebrate Zoology

Research

Krause RJ, Scott ME, Sinisterra O, Koski KG. Preschool child growth attainment and velocity during an agriculture intervention in rural Panama may be diminished by soiltransmitted helminths. Frontiers in Public Health 11:1122528. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1122528 

Krause RJ, Scott ME, Sinisterra O and Koski KG (2021). Demonstration gardens improve agricultural production, food security, and preschool child diets in subsistence farming communities in Panama. Public Health Nutrition 24:1104-1116.

Cruz G, De León L, Bethancourt A, Ríos N, Krause R, Sandoval N (2021). Antagonistic effects of native strains of the soil fungus Paecilomyces against multiple protist and nematode gastrointestinal parasites of pigs in Panama. Journal of Parasitic Diseases 45:204-210.

Krause RJ, Koski KG, Pons E, Sinisterra O and Scott ME (2019). Household food insecurity in Panamanian subsistence farming communities is associated with indicators of household wealth and constraints on food production. Public Health Nutrition 22:2398-2407.

Krause RJ, Koski KG, Pons E, Sinisterra O, and Scott ME (2016). Ascaris and hookworm transmission in preschool children in rural Panama: Role of Subsistence Agricultural Activities. Parasitology 143:1043-1054.

Krause RJ, Koski KG, Pons E, Sandoval N, Sinisterra O, and Scott ME (2015). Ascaris and hookworm transmission in preschool children from rural Panama: role of yard environment, soil eggs/larvae, and hygiene and play behaviours. Parasitology 142:1543-1554.

Krause RJ, Grant JWA, McLaughlin JD, and Marcogliese DJ (2010). Do infections with parasites and exposure to pollution affect susceptibility to predation in Etheostoma nigrum? Canadian Journal of Zoology 88:1218-1225.

Krause RJ, McLaughlin JD, and Marcogliese DJ (2010). Parasite fauna of Etheostoma nigrum (Percidae: Etheostomatinae) in localities of varying pollution stress in the St. Lawrence River, Quebec, Canada. Parasitology Research 107:285-294.

Krause RJ, Vaccaro I, and Aswani S (2010). Challenges in building insect ethnobiological classifications in Roviana, Solomon Islands. Journal of Ethnobiology 30:308-320.

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