Finding ways to solve some of the world’s biggest problems is the underlying challenge that inspired UNC Asheville alums Marjorie McGuirk and Jeff Hicks to collaborate on a new tool that recently launched
ZikaZoneUSA.com offers visitors to the site up-to-date maps that identify areas with the “ripe” ecological conditions for the Zika transporting mosquito, the Aedes aegypti, to live, breed, bite and infect its favored host, humans.
The Zika virus is sneaky. It can be introduced into a community by travelers who might not realize they are carriers, experiencing mild, often undetected, symptoms like fever, rash, joint and muscle aches, red eyes, or headaches. If the virus-transporting mosquito bites that traveler, the fundamental drivers for a local outbreak can be set in motion. For the most vulnerable populations, couples who may become pregnant and their developing fetuses, Zika can have lasting impacts.
The Zika Zone maps are online tools that help individuals, community leaders and public health officials become aware of and prepare for a potential outbreak of the Zika virus in their community.
ZikaZone is a Joint Venture between Marjorie McGuirk, principle of CASE Consultants International and Jeff Hicks of FernLeaf Interactive LLC. The product launched on August 2, 2016 from The Collider, Asheville’s climate business center, starting with a three-month beta-test period. The team continues to work on the scope, scale and applications for the algorithms that transform the science and data into information useful to the public.
McGuirk and Dr. Brunilda Lugo, a CASE consultant and epidemiologist with expertise on vector-borne infectious diseases, approached Hicks and with the idea of utilizing Dr. Lugo’s research to develop a tool that transformed the complex data into easily understandable visual information. The project is the culmination of “80 years and 8 months” of expertise and collaboration between the three principles.
McGuirk has a long history of building collaborative projects across academia and businesses. She is a consultant to the World Meteorological Society, an active member of the American Meteorological Societies Board on Global Strategies and was a key figure in the development of the Climate Change and Society Certificate within UNC Asheville’s Master of Liberal Arts and Sciences degree. She was also a member of the first graduating class of that program.
Jeff Hicks is a 2008 graduate of UNC Asheville with a B.S. in ecology and environmental biology and was a geospatial software engineer with UNC Asheville’s National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center (NEMAC) prior to becoming the managing partner of FernLeaf Interactive. FernLeaf develops software for understanding and visualizing the complex relationships between climate, the environment, and society’s valued assets. FernLeaf and NEMAC collaborate in The Collider. The team is also assisted by Peter Doyle, marketing and media production specialist and 2013 MLAS Climate Change and Society graduate.
(Written by Robin Cape UNC Asheville Class of 2010.)
(Author Robin Cape is 2010 UNC Asheville graduate with a B.A. in literature and a 2016 MLAS Climate Change and Society graduate, and is the spokesperson for Zika Zone USA.)