WHO WE ARE

We are an interdisciplinary team of researchers concerned with multi-generational health effects of environmental exposures from the war industry. Our work is connected with communities along the weapons supply chain, including in the Middle East, Africa, North America, and the Pacific Islands.

Kali Rubaii is PI of the Parts Per Million project. Rubaii coordinates with scholars, doctors, and community organizers concerned about multi-generational health effects of environmental exposures from the war industry, including US military burn pits, mineral mines, weapons debris, and cement factories. Rubaii is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Purdue University and co-I on the War and Geos Project. 

Aaron Specht is a medical physicist who runs the Trace Metals lab at Purdue University for non-destructive, non-invasive elemental quantification. Specht conducts data collection and analysis on heavy metals for the Parts per Million Project. 

Abdulqader Alrawi is a genetics specialist at the Fallujah Women and Children’s Hospital, where he supports informed reproductive health among families that may face DNA damage. Alrawi has supported recruitment and data collection among his patients. The Parts Per Million Project is crowdsourcing funds for DNA testing for 7 of his patients (contact kali.rubaii@gmail if you want to contribute). 

August Trapenier is a recent graduate from the Purdue Department of Anthropology. They have conducted analysis on disability discourse, namely how birth anomalies are invoked differently in the context of war injury than in the context of identity and rights in the US. 

Bianca Miranda-Plaza is student in Biomedical Health Science at Purdue University, who has created an Intensity Exposure Index to organize detonation exposure histories for the Parts per Million Project.

Busisiwe Mboneli is a Certified Community Art Counselor, youth facilitator, and community advocate based in Snakepark, in Soweto, South Africa. Mboneli studied Media Consulting at Boston Business College and Counseling at Lefika La Phodiso. For the Parts Per Million Project, she organizes citizen science data collection and public environmental awareness workshops. 

Creighton Burns is a graduate student in Anthropology at Brown University, who’s dissertation research examines militarism, war ecologies, and temporality in the Mariana Islands. For the Parts per Million Project, Burns conducts ethnographic fieldwork and data entry on the impacts of military bases on local communities.

Ellen Wells is Professor in the Department of Public Health and School of Health Sciences at Purdue University. Wells conducts epidemiological analysis and translates scientific findings for lay audiences with the Parts per Million Project. 

Ian Lindsay is associate professor of Anthropology at Purdue University and co-director of two international archaeology and cultural heritage monitoring projects, Project ArAGATS and Caucasus Heritage Watch. Lindsay conducts spatial analysis and mapping for the Parts Per Million project. 

Khury Petersen-Smith is the Michael Ratner Middle East Fellow and the Co-Director of the New Internationalism Project at the International Policy Institute, with a Phd in Geography focusing on militarism in the Pacific. Petersen-Smith conducts research on military burn pit and base installments with the Parts Per Million Project. 

Nabil Musa is CEO of Waterkeepers Iraq-Kurdistan (part of the global Waterkeeper Alliance), where he leads advocacy, education, and community engagement to protect the waterways of the Tigris Basin. Musa has led research on air and water pollution, including work on cement industry impacts with the Parts per Million project. 

Mark Griffiths is a Reader in Political Geography in the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology at Newcastle University and PI of the War and Geos project. Griffiths researches weapons supply chains, namely source and quantity estimates for weapons manufacturing and deployments with the Parts Per Million project. 

Natalya Dinat is trained as an obstetrician-gynecologist and works with mining affected communities in South Africa. She is an advocate-researcher for women’s health and the use of science for peace. For the Parts Per Million Project, Dinat manages environmental health data collection, analysis, and community application.

Nooraldha Omar is an anthropology and health researcher who specializes in health-specific Arabic translation, ethnographic research in Iraq. An MA student at the University of Michigan, her research foci include environmental damage, military violence, and cancer. 

Ovie Ageze is a PhD student of Archeology at Purdue University specializing in Heritage studies and GIS in Landscape and settlement studies. Ageze has built storymaps visualizing displacement trajectories and life events for the Parts per Million Project. 

Ryleigh Turner is a PhD candidate in Health and Human Sciences Purdue University with expertise in industrial hygiene. Turner conducts data analysis on public health records, environmental exposure statistics, and reproductive health histories for the Parts Per Million Project.

Salman Khairalla is earning a Masters in water sustainability development, governance and management at the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education. He is co-founder of the Humat Dijlah Association and International coordinator of Save The Tigris and facilitates environmental policy action in Iraq. Khairalla has supported soil and water sampling, as well as community organizing, with the Parts per Million Project. 

Samira Alaani is a pediatrician in Fallujah who spearheaded international response to an increase in birth anomalies since military battles in the city. Alaani has championed health justice advocacy for her patients, and called for international researchers to conduct data collection at the Fallujah Women and Children’s hospital, including the Parts Per Million project. 

Sipho Shongwe is a founding member of the National Union of Mineworkers in South Africa and coordinator of Mining Impacted Communities Experiences (MICE) with scholars at University of New Mexico. He studied in exile from South Africa at the University of Cambridge and is an expert in metallurgical processing operations. For the Parts Per Million Project, Shongwe is a local systems advisor and research coordinator.

Tala Sater is a student of Brain and Behavioral Sciences and Biomedical Health Sciences at Purdue University. Sater contributes to spatial analysis examining proximity to environmental toxicants and patterns of anomalies birth outcomes.

Tiny Dhlamini is an environmental and gender justice activist and media liaison for impacted mining communities in Johannesburg, South Africa. For the Parts Per Million Project, Dhlamini coordinates citizen science research and community bioremediation efforts.

Watheq Jasim is an English instructor in Iraq's secondary schools and a collaborator with several international aid organizations. Jasim work for the Parts per Million project focuses on translation, facilitating research permissions, and leading public health education initiatives in Anbar province. 

Sponsors

Purdue Policy Research Institute

Purdue Exploratory Research Initiative