RESEARCHER PROFILE
Victoria Love Franklin
Ph.D. Data Science Research Scholar · Meharry Medical College
★ Poster Prize · 2026 Dr. Clifton K. Meador LectureshipVictoria Love Franklin is a Ph.D. Data Science Research Scholar at Meharry Medical College. Her research spans artificial intelligence and machine learning, geospatial analysis, environmental and public-health surveillance, cybersecurity, and infrastructure resilience.
Her work includes the NWGS Grid™ research project, which integrates wastewater, genomic, geospatial and public-health evidence, and the NWGS Grid™ Application developed from it. She also studies infrastructure disruption, environmental vulnerability and public-health preparedness through GridAI™ / SEGDA and BioGrid Sentinel AI.
Her research and professional experience includes work with federal research laboratories and public-sector organizations.
Education
Ph.D., Data Science
Nuclear Cybersecurity concentration · Meharry Medical College
Dean’s List · Scholarship Recipient
Graduate Certificate, Public Administration & Executive Leadership
Tennessee State University
December 4, 2026
Professional Science Master’s (PSM), Applied Geospatial Information Systems
Tennessee State University
B.S., Urban Studies
Minor in Nonprofit Management & Leadership · Tennessee State University
A.A.S., Health Information Technology
Daymar Institute (formerly Draughons Junior College)
Honors & awards (14)
Poster Prize2026 Dr. Clifton K. Meador Lectureship
“Hidden Communities, Unequal Resilience: SEGDA Environmental Justice, Power Outage Burden, and Climate Stress Across California Census Tracts and Counties (2018–2023): Implications for Public Health Equity”
Poster selected to receive a poster prize at the 2026 Dr. Clifton K. Meador Lectureship.
November 19, 2026 · 12:00–1:30 p.m.Cal Turner Family Center, Meharry Medical College
Parade Grand Marshal2026 Nashville Veterans Day Parade
Named Parade Grand Marshal of the 2026 Nashville Veterans Day Parade, representing Meharry Medical College during its 150th anniversary year (Meharry 150: Forever on the Path) as a published research scholar and Ph.D. data science student. Meharry students, faculty, staff, and alumni are invited to march with the delegation.
Wednesday, November 11, 2026 · 11:00 a.m.Downtown Broadway, Nashville, TN
TSU Homecoming ParadeParade participant · Tennessee State University’s 99th Homecoming, “The Blue Never Fades”
Marched in the Tennessee State University 2026 Homecoming Parade with the team of Karen Johnson, Davidson County Register of Deeds, where Victoria serves as Data Analytics & Technology Fellow and Project Lead. A proud TSU alumna (PSM in Applied Geospatial Information Systems, B.S. in Urban Studies), she joined fellow alumni, students, and Nashville community members along historic Jefferson Street.
Saturday, October 17, 2026Jefferson Street, Nashville, TN
Featured: Inspiring Black ScientistWiley’s Inspiring Black Scientists initiative
Her work focuses on developing data-driven approaches and AI-enabled systems to address complex challenges in public health, critical infrastructure resilience and government operations. Through NWGS Grid™, she brings together wastewater surveillance data, geospatial analytics, genomic information and reference protein structures with curated functional regions to support a broader understanding of infectious-disease surveillance.
Featured by WastewaterSCANWastewaterSCAN · Stanford University & Emory University
“Exploring Wastewater Monitoring Research at HBCUs: A Q&A with a Doctoral Student”
In this Q&A by Kyler Moore, WastewaterSCAN, the national wastewater monitoring program led by Stanford University and Emory University, highlighted her development of the NWGS Grid Platform: a real-time infectious-disease surveillance and analytics system that combines wastewater genomic data, clinical results and population data into a unified “smart grid” public-health teams can use to detect and monitor disease trends.
Featured by Emory UniversityRollins School of Public Health · Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health
Women’s History Month HonoreeHBCU Environmental Justice Technical Collaborative
Honored in the Collaborative’s Women’s History Month feature as “a dedicated scholar” whose work connects data, public health, environmental justice, energy systems and community impact, recognized for leadership, scholarship and service.
March 2026
First Place Research Award69th Annual Research Day · School of Applied Computational Sciences, Meharry Medical College
“Using GIS and Metagenomics to Enhance Wastewater Surveillance”
Clinical surveillance depends on people seeking care and testing, which delays outbreak reporting. This study proposed a framework that pairs campus wastewater sampling with metagenomic analysis in R and spatial mapping in ArcGIS to find pathogen hotspots earlier, with a real-time wastewater surveillance dashboard as the end goal.
Franklin, V.L.; Gary, T.; Sarker, B. (Meharry Medical College); Archer, R. (Tennessee State University). Also presented at the 2025 Wastewater Disease Surveillance Summit, June 3–4, 2025, Los Angeles, hosted by the Water Environment Federation in partnership with CDC; poster archived by the Network of Wastewater-Based Epidemiology.
Dean’s List & Scholarship RecipientSchool of Applied Computational Sciences, Meharry Medical College
2024–2025 · 2025–2026
Health Trust Foundation GrantDear Music Nonprofit
Mighty Light AwardDowntown Memphis Commission · Beale Street Art Crawl
State of Downtown and Downtown Vision AwardsDowntown Memphis Commission
Graduate Research Symposium PresenterTennessee State University
“Analysis and Valuation of Ecosystem Services Provided by Urban Trees within Centennial Park, Davidson County, Nashville, TN”
Research completed as a GIS Graduate Research Assistant at Tennessee State University (2017–2018). The study quantified the ecosystem services and carbon sequestration provided by urban trees in Centennial Park, using GIS, remote sensing, and i-Tree.
Franklin, V., Haile, S., & Link, R. (Tennessee State University). The research was also presented as a student poster and panel at the USGIF GEOINTegration Summit (2019).
Power Moves Awards Nominee, Community AdvocacyPower Moves Awards
Current work
NWGS Grid™
GridAI™ / SEGDA
BioGrid Sentinel AI
Papers (7)
- Decoding Tennessee Wastewater Surveillance: A Multimodal Geospatial Assessment of Infectious-Disease Signals, Surveillance Coverage, and Public-Health Equity12th International Conference on Environmental Pollution, Treatment and Protection (ICEPTP 2027), CSEE 2027 Congress · April 8–10, 2027 · London, UK · Paper ID 117Status: Accepted (final version uploaded) · Author: Victoria Love Franklin · Initiative: NWGS Grid™
- From Wastewater Signals to Clinical Burden: A Multimodal Machine-Learning and Geospatial Evaluation of Respiratory Virus Surveillance Across United States Jurisdictions12th International Conference on Environmental Pollution, Treatment and Protection (ICEPTP 2027), CSEE 2027 Congress · April 8–10, 2027 · London, UK · Paper ID 133Status: Accepted (final version uploaded) · Author: Victoria Love Franklin · Initiative: NWGS Grid™
- NWGS Grid: A Multimodal Wastewater Genomic Surveillance Framework for Geospatial, Genomic, and Public Health Intelligence, United States, October 2022–September 202612th International Conference on Environmental Pollution, Treatment and Protection (ICEPTP 2027), CSEE 2027 Congress · April 8–10, 2027 · London, UK · Paper ID 134Status: Accepted (final version uploaded) · Author: Victoria Love Franklin · Initiative: NWGS Grid™
- Beyond Point Accuracy: Probabilistic Evaluation of Wastewater-Informed Respiratory Hospitalization Forecasts in Fifteen U.S. States12th International Conference on Environmental Pollution, Treatment and Protection (ICEPTP 2027), CSEE 2027 Congress · April 8–10, 2027 · London, UK · Paper ID 135Status: Accepted (final version uploaded) · Author: Victoria Love Franklin · Initiative: NWGS Grid™
- Two Ceilings on Wastewater-Based Surveillance: Observable Population Worldwide and Operational Lead Time in the United States12th International Conference on Environmental Pollution, Treatment and Protection (ICEPTP 2027), CSEE 2027 Congress · April 8–10, 2027 · London, UK · Paper ID 136Status: Accepted (final version uploaded) · Author: Victoria Love Franklin · Initiative: NWGS Grid™
- Socio-Environmental Grid Disruption Analysis (SEGDA): A Multi-Scale Spatial Assessment of Energy Justice and Climate Resilience Across California Census Tracts and Counties, 2018–202310th EAI SmartGIFT 2026 · Springer LNICST · November 12–13, 2026 · Tempe, Arizona & virtualStatus: Accepted (camera-ready submitted) · Authors: Victoria Love Franklin et al. · Initiative: GridAI™ / SEGDA
- BioGrid Sentinel AI: A Geospatial Digital Twin Framework for Nuclear Infrastructure Resilience and Community Health Preparedness10th EAI SmartGIFT 2026 · Springer LNICST · November 12–13, 2026 · Tempe, Arizona & virtualStatus: Accepted (camera-ready submitted) · Authors: Victoria Love Franklin et al. · Initiative: BioGrid Sentinel AI