Home > Our Team

Our Team

Asli Aslan, Ph.D, MSc.

Director of the Institute for Water and Health

Dr. Asli Aslan is the Founding Director of the Institute for Water and Health and Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Georgia Southern University. She has over 20 years of water research
experience and leads multidisciplinary, multisectoral teams, contributing to decision-making based on scientific data. During the early years of her career, Asli oversaw the first beach restoration project of the Metropolitan City of Istanbul, Turkiye. Before joining Georgia Southern, she was a Research Assistant Professor at Michigan State University. She served as the co-director of IC-Sewage, a global scientific workgroup affiliated with the International Water Association that developed protocols for tracking microbial pollution in global water resources. During her research in Michigan, she also leads initiatives for training local health departments to adopt rapid water quality monitoring methods.

Asli serves as an advisor, reviewer, scientific committee member, and affiliated faculty in various state and federal agencies and organizations. She is the co-founder of the Water and Health Committee of the American Public Health Association and recently served at the USEPA Science Advisory Board’s Augmented Committee for Drinking Water. Asli lives in Savannah with her husband Mete and son.

Specialty Area: Water Quality, Environmental Health Sciences, Water Safety Planning in Rural and Urban Environment

Current Research: Pollution Source Tracking; Chemical and Microbiological Contaminants of Concern; Groundwater Availability and Quality

Google Scholar Link

Luke Roberson, MSc.

Coordinator of Community Engagement and Outreach

Born and raised in Elizabethtown, KY, Luke has over 15 years of experience in environmental science and has worked with a diverse group of federal and state agencies, non-profits, and educational centers in his career. He specializes in Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR), working with volunteers, educators, and businesses in collecting and interpreting water quality data. He lives in Savannah, GA with his wife Kim and two kids.

Luke has undergraduate degrees in graphic design and biology from the University of Kentucky, and a Masters of Science in Environmental Science and Policy from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. He is a current DPH student at Georgia Southern University with a concentration in Community Health Behavior and Education.

Specialty Area: Recreational water quality, citizen science

Current Research: Assessment of risk communication techniques for recreational water quality advisories

Jacob Loveless, Ph.D, MSc.

Lab Manager

Jake Loveless was first introduced to water quality research as an undergraduate at Utah Valley University where he used macroinvertebrate community composition to assess ecosystem health and water quality in Utah streams and wetlands. He has a diverse research background covering many different topics and ecosystems. He has conducted research on insect and nekton communities in the bays and estuaries of the Gulf of Mexico, genetic analyses on forest trees in the Pacific Northwest and Idaho, researched how adjuvants improve pesticide uptake in various crop and weed species and has extensive experience in microbiology and molecular lab techniques.

Jake has an undergraduate degree in Biology from Utah Vally University, a Masters of Science focusing on insect community ecology from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, and a Ph.D. from Portland State University focusing on plant and microbial genetics.

Specialty area: Microbial genetics and molecular laboratory techniques.

Victoria Clower, MPH

Graduate Research Assistant

Victoria Clower is a bright first-year doctoral candidate attending Georgia Southern University. She is studying Community Health Behavior and Education at Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health. She is passionate about community outreach and public education, especially in dealing with environmental issues. She volunteers her time with the Ogeechee Riverkeeper and works with the Adopt-A-Stream organization monitoring waterways in southeast Georgia. Victoria also enjoys conducting research in environmental health and hopes to one day run her own lab and become an Environmental Health Specialist.

Specialty Area: Drinking water quality, rural environmental health

Current Research: Water stewardship and disease prevention interventions among private well owners

Vannessa Countryman

Communications Assistant

Vanessa Countryman is a third-year student at Georgia Southern University, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Multimedia Journalism in May 2024. She has a passion for journalism and social media. Here at IWH, she markets and manages the production of social media content and also website content. She also works at the Georgia Southern Student Media Group, The George Anne, where she has been a reporter, editor-in-chief, special projects reporter, and social media coordinator. She hopes to continue her experiences in her future career.

Josh Brown

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Joshua Brown is an undergraduate Biology student from Savannah, GA. Growing up around marshes, Josh developed an intense love for both Savannah as a city and the land that it inhabits. This love for the coastal plains has made him pursue a job in environmental policy. When he is not at IWH, he is a hobby film photographer who spends his free time visiting state parks or archiving digital media for conservation efforts.

Affiliated Faculty

As a multidisciplinary unit, the IWH relies on the diverse set of experts at Georgia Southern for solutions to the challenges faced at the intersection of water and health. We work with our university partners for grant writing, education, outreach, and innovative research projects.