Departmental Affiliations
Michael R. Desjardins, PhD, MA, is a spatial epidemiologist and medical geographer who works on pushing the frontier of understanding the nexus between health and place.
Research Interests
Spatial Epidemiology; Geographic Information Science & Systems; Medical Geography; Spatio-Temporal Modeling; Health Disparities; Spatial Statistics; Uncertainty; Disease Surveillance; Gun Violence; Substance Abuse; Healthcare Accessibility; Cancer; Healthy Ageing; Residential Mobility; Longitudinal Analysis
Experiences & Accomplishments
Dr. Desjardins is broadly trained medical geographer and geographic information scientist. His current work focuses on examining accessibility to Gynecologic Oncologists and Johns Hopkins’ Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center (SKCCC); residential mobility’s impact on chronic and infectious disease outcomes; healthy ageing; prediction of Vibrio parahaemolyticus bacteria in estuarine environments; smoking cessation; adolescent and adult mental health; harm reduction (e.g., gun violence and substance abuse); and vector-borne disease transmission across the globe. Dr. Desjardins also substantially contributed to the COVID-19 literature with 11 published scientific papers since the start of the pandemic. He is the former chair of the Health and Medical Geography Group (HMGSG) of the American Association of Geographers (AAG), and currently serves as the Special Issues Editor for Health & Place; and serves on the editorial board of Cartography and Geographic Information Science. Dr. Desjardins also assists Dr. Curriero and Mr. Shields as co-instructor of Fundamentals of GIS, Spatial Data Technologies, Spatial Statistics, and Spatial Design and Application. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in epidemiology with Dr. Curriero in May 2022 and has since transitioned to faculty.
Honors & Awards
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) Loan Repayment Program (LRP) Awardee (2024-2026)
Advisor of Best Overall MPH Capstone (Ugochi Ejiogu), 2024
2024 Student Supervisor of the Year Nominee, University Experiential Learning
Excellence in Teaching: Spatial Statistics (Term 3, 2023, 2024); Spatial Design and Application (Term 4, 2023)
2023 Faculty Innovation Fund (Richard L. Gelb Cancer Prevention Fund)
Early Career Editorial Board (ECEB) Member for Health and Place (2022-2024)
ECEB Member for Well-being, Space, and Society (2022-2024)
Dissertation Research Grant. American Association of Geographers (2019)
Outstanding Doctoral Student in Geography Award. UNC-Charlotte (2019)
James W. Clay Memorial Scholarship for Excellence in GIScience. UNC-Charlotte (2018)
Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award. UNC-Charlotte. (2018)
Joanna R. Baker Memorial Graduate Fellowship in Interdisciplinary Research. UNC-Charlotte (2016)
Select Publications
Recent representative publications
Desjardins, M. R., Kanarek, N. F., Nelson, W. G., Bachman, J., & Curriero, F. C. (2024). Disparities in Cancer Stage Outcomes by Catchment Areas for a Comprehensive Cancer Center. JAMA Network Open, 7(5), e249474-e249474.
OKeeffe, J., Salem-Bango, L., Desjardins, M. R., Lantagne, D., Altare, C., Kaur, G., ... & Spiegel, P. B. (2024). Case-area targeted interventions during a large-scale cholera epidemic: A prospective cohort study in Northeast Nigeria. PLoS medicine, 21(5), e1004404.
Desjardins, M. R., Davis, B. J. K., & Curriero, F. C. (2024). Evaluating the performance of Bayesian geostatistical prediction with physical barriers in the Chesapeake Bay. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 196(3), 255.
Desjardins, M. R., Desravines, N., Fader, A. N., Wethington, S., & Curriero, F. C. (2023). Geographic Disparities in Potential Accessibility to Gynecologic Oncologists in the United States From 2001 to 2020. Obstetrics and gynecology, 142(3), 688-697.
Ryan, S. C., Desjardins, M. R., Runkle, J. D., Wertis, L., & Sugg, M. M. (2023). Evaluating co-occurring space-time clusters of depression and suicide-related outcomes before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Spatial and spatio-temporal epidemiology, 47, 100607.