Karla S. Mendez

Environmental Microbiologist and Assistant Professor

UTHealth Houston School of Public Health

Karla Mendez is an Environmental Microbiologist and Assistant Professor at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health. Dr. Mendez earned a BS in Biology at the University of Texas at El Paso, an MPH with a focus in Epidemiology and a PhD in Environmental Disease Prevention at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health. Dr. Mendez’s work addresses the human health risks associated with different wastewater treatment technologies and water reuse implementation by using quantitative microbial risk assessment. Specifically, her work is the first to develop a human health risk framework to evaluate the impacts of different water reuse treatment and practices that incorporates a community vulnerability assessment.