Dec 2025
Drug usage data for a community has traditionally been obtained through population surveys, records from law enforcement activities related to drug-related crime, drug treatment centers, prison data, and hospital records.
Over the past decade, analysis of wastewater has gained traction as a complementary approach that provides a quick snapshot of which drugs a particular community is using. This approach provides objective and anonymous data of drug use trends within a community, and can help with developing appropriate intervention measures from law enforcement, health, and education perspectives.
Webinar speaker Dr. Ellen Mwenesongole has carried out research in this field in the U.K., Botswana, and the U.S., and she will describe the important role that partnerships and collaborations have played in these and other projects. She will share her experience in developing effective collaborations, in which every team member’s voice is heard and their competence and experience in a particular area is harnessed for the good of the overall project.
Read the key takeaway messages from all of our webinars here.
Dr. Ellen Mwenesongole
Columbia College
Dr. Ellen Mwenesongole worked for seven years as a Senior Scientist at Procter & Gamble in South Africa and UK before obtaining an M.S. degree in forensic science from the University of Strathclyde (UK), an MSc in Chemistry from the University of Pretoria (South Africa), and a Ph.D. degree in forensic science from Anglia Ruskin University (UK). In between her studies, Dr. Mwenesongole worked in toxicology, pharmaceutical, and doping control laboratories. Since obtaining her Ph.D. degree, Dr. Mwenesongole has led the development of undergraduate and postgraduate forensic science programs in both South Africa and Botswana and was an Associate Professor in Forensic Science at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is currently an Associate Professor and Forensic Science Program Coordinator at Columbia College in Columbia, Missouri.
