Professor and Associate Chair of Urban & Environmental Policy & Planning
(1) human-natural interactions and their impact on environment and social equity at multiple spatial scales, particularly in cities;
(2) technology and development
Human dimensions of environmental change; socio-ecological system governance; equitable sustainability transformations; community resilience; coastal and marine systems
Urban Anthropology and Ethnography; Global Poverty and Development; Housing and Infrastructure; Gender and Kinship; Latin American Studies; Political and Legal Anthropology
Air pollution monitoring, mobile monitoring, air pollution modeling, ambient air quality, indoor air quality, air pollution control, air pollution exposure, air pollution epidemiology
Geographic Information Systems (GIS), geospatial technology, the Open Geoportal (OGP), visualization, GPS, cartography, international mapping especially the developing world, humanitarian assistance, open source applications, digital humanities, ecology, data mining, human security, crisis mapping, business intelligence/analytics, geospatial new media, remote sensing, natural disasters, historical modeling, 3D GIS, public health, geospatial social network tools, data science, urban modeling, open data, geospatial data sources, geo portals, web mapping, UAV - Drones, Spatial Data Infrastructure, geospatial education, natural language processing (NLP), text analysis, etc.
Agriculture and the Environment: This is the constant theme of my work since my undergraduate days. Within the AFE program, this incudes assessments of resource use (land, water, etc.) by current and future production strategies and systems. My current efforts are informed by having conducted decades of field and laboratory research on crop management, alternative crop development, short- and long-term effects of cropping systems on potato yield and quality, management strategies to improve soil quality, manure nitrogen and phosphorus availability, soil carbon sequestration and cycling, emission of greenhouse gases from high-value production systems, and grain production for organic dairy systems.
Sustainable and Equitable Food Systems: Environmental outcomes are one of several realms or domains that are encompassed by a Sustainable Food System. The Friedman School is uniquely placed to link agriculture, nutrition and health, economics, and individual and societal well-being. Of particular interest is the role of diets as a driver of sustainability outcomes, and includes policy-oriented efforts such as my role advising the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, to include sustainability in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Interdisciplinary Education and Mentoring: The AFE program is inherently interdisciplinary, as is the Friedman School. My particular interest is to provide education and research opportunities so that students can develop the specific skills necessary to work at the interface of different disciplines or domains.
Professor and Department Chair of Child Study & Human Development
Neighborhood and community context; housing context; family context; poverty and socioeconomic status; social policy; adolescence; immigrant young children
Dr. Stopka's current research focuses on the intersection of opioid use disorder, overdose, and infectious diseases (HCV, HIV, STIs, COVID-19). He employs GIS, spatial epidemiological, qualitative, biostatistical, and laboratory approaches in multi-site, interdisciplinary studies and public health interventions. He currently leads and contributes to clinical trials and observational studies funded by the NIH, CDC, and SAMHSA to assess the effectiveness of a mobile, telemedicine-based HCV treatment and harm reduction model for rural opioid users in Northern New England, to reduce opioid overdose deaths by 40% in Massachusetts, and to evaluate the overdose prevention impacts of administration of medication for opioid use disorder in houses of correction. Dr. Stopka is also Co-PI of the Tufts research priority group focused on equity in health, wealth, and civic engagement. He teaches courses in GIS and spatial epidemiology, research methods for public health, and epidemiology. He enjoys mentoring research assistants, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty in ongoing research studies and collaborative publications.
