Dr. Meghan Albritton

IGC FELLOW GRADUATE    |   Global Change Center

VT GRADUATE May 2026  •  Geography

Advisor : Dr. Korine Kolivras

Research Interests: Human and environmental health impacts of extractivism, health geography, global health, participatory mapping

mjalbritton@vt.edu 

Dr. Meghan Albritton successfully defended her dissertation on April 30, 2026. She is now an Assistant Professor of Public Health at Willamette University in Oregon.

Meghan got her B.A. in Spanish and B.S. in Environmental Science with a minor in Anthropology from Berry College in 2019 where she researched paleoclimate reconstruction. After teaching for a year in Spain and spending a year in AmeriCorps in Oregon, Meghan came to Virginia Tech and graduated with an M.S. in Geography and an M.P.H. with a concentration in infectious diseases in 2023. During her master's she spent eight weeks in India working on a water purification project and another six weeks in Guatemala conducting the fieldwork for her thesis. She used interviews and participatory mapping in the Ch’orti’ communities of Olopa, Guatemala to understand the human and environmental health impacts of an antimony mine operating on indigenous land.

At VT, Meghan was a Ph.D. student in the Geography Department as part of the Geospatial and Environmental Analysis program. She continued her work in Guatemala using participatory mapping to understand the syndemic health impacts of extractivism, and did a comparative study in Appalachia.

As part of the IGC, Meghan was excited to interact with and learn from people with diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and knowledge while gaining skills to aid in her interdisciplinary research.

Last updated July 2026.