Degrees:

• D.V.M., University of Minnesota
• M.A., Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis
• B.A., Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Research Interests:

I am a wildlife veterinarian with an interest in tropical infectious diseases. I am the co-PI of the Konashen Ecosystem Health Project, a long-term collaboration with indigenous Waiwai horticulturalists in Guyana, South America, focused on sustainable resource use and shared human-animal health. The primary focus of my research is to characterize disease transmission dynamics between humans, wildlife and domestic dogs in Amazonia. Specifically, the questions I aim to address are: 1) do domestic dogs serve as bridge hosts between wildlife and humans? and 2) are free-ranging, neotropical primate populations reservoirs for human diseases? I employ field-based, molecular diagnostics for pathogen surveillance, discovery, and as an innovate means to communicate results in real-time when conducting community-based research. Additionally, with a background in anthropology, I use ethnographic methods to understand how different societies construct human-animal distinctions and how that influences zoonotic disease transmission.