Kelsey’s research integrates environmental engineering, molecular microbiology, and bioinformatics to understand how microbes drive methane emissions in non-sewered sanitation (NSS) systems. Access to safe sanitation remains one of the world’s greatest public health and environmental challenges. More than half of the global population relies on NSS systems such as septic tanks and pit latrines. While essential to human health, these systems can release methane, a potent greenhouse gas, yet their emissions remain poorly quantified—a critical blind spot in climate modeling and sanitation policy.

Kelsey addresses this gap by studying the microbial ecology underlying wastewater degradation and greenhouse gas production. Using molecular tools such as quantitative PCR and next-generation sequencing, she identifies which microorganisms drive methane generation and under what environmental conditions. Her fieldwork in Uganda and Canada captures sanitation systems in diverse climates and socioeconomic contexts, linking microbial activity, system design, and environmental factors to overall emissions and treatment performance.

She is now deepening the bioinformatics analysis of her existing microbiological and field datasets to explore how microbial community structure, function, and environmental conditions jointly influence methane generation and to assess how these insights can inform climate models. Complementing this analysis, she plans targeted microcosm experiments—such as stable isotope probing—to directly test hypotheses about microbial function and system behavior.

Her work contributes to multiple United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), Goal 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), and Goal 13 (Climate Action). It also supports Goals 5 (Gender Equality) and 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) by advancing equitable and climate-smart sanitation for all.