From Hospital Hallways to Tick Capture: MPH Student's Field Experience Leads to Findings on Tick-Bourne Diseases

For most students, a practicum is a chance to log hours of hands-in experience in their chosen area of study and one of the last requirements for graduation. For Darian Dean, it’s also a chance to follow her longtime interest in health, even continuing as a volunteer this summer after her required hours were complete.

Her experience has also led to new findings on the tick population in coastal Virginia, which can translate into better understanding of tick-borne diseases. 

For Darian Dean (BSPH ’22), who is scheduled to graduate from the Master of Public Health program in the Joint School of Public Health at Old Dominion 91����Ƶ and Norfolk 91����Ƶ 91����Ƶ in August, joining the ODU Tick Team and conducting hands-on tick surveillance project turned out to be the perfect intersection of infectious disease research and local impacts on public health.

Currently working as an Infection Prevention Associate at Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters (CHKD), Dean spends her days investigating hospital-acquired infections and creating protocols to keep patients safe. But when it came time to complete the 200-hour practicum required for graduation from the MPH, the challenge was clear: how would she balance a full-time job with a meaningful placement?

Her research led her to Dr. Holly Gaff, professor and chair of Biological Sciences in the College of Sciences at ODU. Despite being in different departments, Dean says Gaff welcomed her with open arms because of the connection between the subjects of tick-borne illness and public health.

“I read some of her papers and couldn’t believe she had a lab right here,” Dean said. “The idea that this niche work was happening in my own backyard was incredible.”

Dean became one of the student researchers on the Tick Team, a group of researchers who conduct tick surveillance across Virginia. Started in 2009, the team visits designated field sites monthly and use a standard flagging technique—literally dragging cloth across vegetation—to collect ticks questing for a host. The fieldwork was a breath of fresh air for someone used to working behind a desk.

“Being out there, collecting ticks, logging the data, and working in the lab—it was all completely new,” she said. “I’d never done research like this, and the team was so welcoming. I learned what to wear in the field, how to collect properly, and what happens to the samples once they’re back in the lab.”

Her practicum assignment also brought Dean full circle from her Bachelor of Public Health degree, which she earned from ODU in 2022 while working full-time. The driving force behind her desire to join the Tick Team comes from a concept she learned in Dr. Leslie Hoglund’s class as an undergraduate: One Health. One Health is an interdisciplinary approach to public health that emphasizes the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health, and a concept that stuck with her throughout the years.

When she decided to pursue an MPH, Dean said that the familiar faculty, transferrable credits, and a desire to deepen her understanding of public health to further her career, she was excited to work with Hoglund again and dive deeper into the concepts of One Health.

"The ODU Tick Team has greatly benefited from having MPH students in the lab over the years, and Darian is one of the top MPH students we have had,” Gaff said. “The students come with a lot of knowledge on the theory of public health, but they get a chance to learn the challenges of active surveillance and public health outreach through work on ticks and tick-borne diseases."

For Dean, the fieldwork is just the beginning. Once students return to the lab, each tick is frozen to preserve its DNA, cataloged in a detailed database, and eventually tested for pathogens. This hands-on exposure to both the field and molecular sides of epidemiology lead Dean to the question that was ultimately the subject of her practicum’s final project: how does climate change affect tick populations?

For the answer, she analyzed tick data going back to 2010 and cross-referenced it with NOAA weather reports. Her findings suggested a link between major rain events and decreased tick populations in the following three years in the Tidewater region.

For the answer, Dean investigated the effects of climate change, through the lens of major weather events, on lone star tick populations in the Tidewater area from 2010 to 2023. As one of the most common human-biting ticks in Virginia, the lone star tick has the potential to carry diseases such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever, alpha-gal syndrome, ehrlichiosis, heartland virus, rickettsia parkeri disease, and tularemia, and paired with growing environmental challenges due to sea level rise and sinking land, the region faces unique environmental challenges. The coastal cities of Tidewater face unique environmental challenges as they experience increasing sea-level trends in combination with decreasing land elevation. Using NOAA's storm event database, Dean examined the various major weather events documented from 2007 to 2023, with flood and heavy rain events being the most common occurrences.

Her findings show that for every flood or heavy rain event in that timeframe, the population of lone star tick counts decreased by approximately 16 ticks. The findings could lay the foundation for predictive modeling of tick populations in response to weather, Dean said.

“It all ties back to One Health,” Dean explained. “Environmental changes affect animal populations, which in turn impact human health. That’s the lens I use for everything now.”

Looking ahead, Dean plans to turn her practicum into a manuscript for submission to a public health journal to share the findings with other researchers. She also plans to incorporate what she’s learned into her future career plans.  

“My biggest regret is not knowing about this opportunity earlier,” she said. “It’s changed how I see public health and what I want my role in it to be.”

For more information on the Tick Lab and how to submit your own tick for testing, visit the website.