Mirjana Susa, MPH

Mirjana Susa

Position Title
Research Grant Program Officer

  • COEH
she/her/hers
University of California-Davis, Medical Sciences 1-C, One Shields Avenue, Davis CA 95616
Office Hours
8:00 AM — 5:00 PM Monday — Friday
>On-site Tuesday and Thursday
>Remote Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
Bio

Mirjana Susa (“MEER-yah-nah SOO-shah") is a public health professional with a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology and Bachelor of Science in Animal Science from the University of California, Davis. She has extensive experience managing large-scale public health research projects, developing health promotion campaigns, and fostering interdisciplinary collaborations. Her expertise spans epidemiology, project management, and health and science education. She is passionate about health equity, medical research, and addressing community health issues from a One Health perspective. 

Previously, Mirjana played a key role in the Healthy Davis Together COVID-19 project, serving as the primary liaison for on-site point-of-care testing, public health education, and pandemic prevention strategies for over 50 K-12 schools in Yolo County. She also helped expand the initiative into Healthy Central Valley Together, managing wastewater-based epidemiology efforts across Yolo, Merced, and Stanislaus counties with a focus on health equity and environmental health. Her strategic planning efforts led to a 60% reduction in COVID-19 cases over 15 months, preventing over 4,000 cases, 300 hospitalizations, and 30 deaths through effective community engagement. Her contributions also included developing robust data management and quality control protocols for large environmental datasets, overseeing the transition to a new laboratory for sample processing, facilitating interdisciplinary collaborations on multiple scientific publications, creating and presenting comprehensive reports on data trends to stakeholders, and securing extramural funding to support critical public health research.

Mirjana also has experience in occupational health, having developed and implemented the “Rest and Revive” sleep health campaign for the UC Davis Staff and Faculty Health and Well-being Program. This initiative promoted healthy sleep habits to over 500 participants, increasing awareness of sleep’s role in health and productivity.

Her teaching experience includes serving as a Teaching Assistant in the UC Davis Department of Chicana/o Studies and as a STEM tutor at American River College, where she mentored students across social and science disciplines, facilitated group discussions, and helped develop best study practices. 

As a One Health advocate, Mirjana is passionate about the interconnected well-being of people, animals, and the environment. She has worked at the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital and volunteered at local preventative care organizations, including Mercer Veterinary Clinic and Knight’s Landing One Health Clinic (KLOHC). She also led an undergraduate course for KLOHC students covering public health topics such as health psychology, structural racism and health disparities, cultural transformation models, and case study analysis.

Currently, Mirjana is the Research Grant Program Officer for the Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (COEH) at UC Davis Public Health Sciences. In this role, she oversees, manages, and supports various complex, multi-disciplinary, and extramurally funded research projects for the center. She is committed to advancing equity-centered research in occupational and environmental health, addressing disparities with a community-focused lens.

In her spare time, Mirjana likes spending time with her two dogs and cat, reading, baking bread, crocheting, attending music shows, and discovering great spots for food and coffee. 

Education and Degree(s)
  • Master of Public Health, Specialty in Epidemiology, University of California, Davis (September 2020)
  • Bachelor of Science in Animal Science, University of California, Davis (March 2019 )
Honors and Awards
  • Master of Public Health Practicum Stipend: Issued by UC Davis School of Medicine Master of Public Health Program. Recipient of the MPH Practicum Stipend award to assist with funds to travel, supplies and services related to the practicum. (June 2020)
  • Outstanding Core Curriculum Performance Award: Issued by UC Davis School of Medicine Master of Public Health Program. Awarded with a Core Curriculum Performance Award for achieving a 4.0 GPA. (June 2020)
  • Departmental Citation: Issued by University of California, Davis Department of Animal Science. In Recognition of Outstanding Undergraduate Achievement. (June 2019)
  • Deans Honor List: Issued by University of California, Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. (Spring Quarter 2017, Fall Quarter 2018, Winter Quarter 2019)
  • American River College Foundation Scholarship Recipient (2016)
Research Interests & Expertise
  • Epidemiology
  • Public Health
  • Project Management
  • Health and Science Education
  • Community Engagement
  • Health Equity
  • Medical Research
  • One Health
Publications
  • Kadonsky KF, Naughton CC, Susa M, et al. Expansion of wastewater-based disease surveillance to improve health equity in California’s Central Valley: Sequential shifts in case-to-wastewater and hospitalization-to-wastewater ratios. Frontiers in Public Health. 2023;11. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2023.1141097
  • Daza-Torres ML, Montesinos-López JC, Kim M, et al. Model training periods impact estimation of COVID-19 incidence from wastewater viral loads. Science of The Total Environment. 2023;858:159680. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159680

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