Monitoring an immobilized white rhinoceros in Zimbabwe
I work as the veterinary epidemiologist for the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) Transfrontier Conservation Area, on behalf of KAZA's Animal Health Sub Working Group. I am also a freelance veterinary epidemiologist specializing in wildlife diseases.
I have always been interested in animals and diseases, and began working in the veterinary field at the age of 14 with the intent of becoming a veterinarian. My undergraduate ecology class gave me an opportunity to do a brief internship in wildlife disease research, which eventually turned into years of full-time summer work on wildlife health projects in Colorado, including chronic wasting disease, sylvatic plague, and avian influenza. I graduated from Colorado State University in 2008 with a BS in biological sciences and zoology. I spent a year working in wildlife veterinary research and veterinary parasitology before starting vet school at CSU. As a veterinary student, I began learning how to analyze data for wildlife veterinary projects, mostly on chemical immobilization of white rhinoceros in Kruger National Park. I graduated with a DVM in 2013 and spent the next year working as a research fellow in small animal internal and shelter medicine before returning to school to start my PhD.
My PhD research in the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology at CSU focused on the ecology and epidemiology of tuberculosis in wildlife, including European badgers in Ireland and elephants in North America and Zimbabwe. After completing my PhD, I did freelance work before spending 2.5 years with the Illinois Department of Public Health as an epidemiologist during the COVID-19 pandemic and into the monkeypox global health emergency.
I have always been interested in animals and diseases, and began working in the veterinary field at the age of 14 with the intent of becoming a veterinarian. My undergraduate ecology class gave me an opportunity to do a brief internship in wildlife disease research, which eventually turned into years of full-time summer work on wildlife health projects in Colorado, including chronic wasting disease, sylvatic plague, and avian influenza. I graduated from Colorado State University in 2008 with a BS in biological sciences and zoology. I spent a year working in wildlife veterinary research and veterinary parasitology before starting vet school at CSU. As a veterinary student, I began learning how to analyze data for wildlife veterinary projects, mostly on chemical immobilization of white rhinoceros in Kruger National Park. I graduated with a DVM in 2013 and spent the next year working as a research fellow in small animal internal and shelter medicine before returning to school to start my PhD.
My PhD research in the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology at CSU focused on the ecology and epidemiology of tuberculosis in wildlife, including European badgers in Ireland and elephants in North America and Zimbabwe. After completing my PhD, I did freelance work before spending 2.5 years with the Illinois Department of Public Health as an epidemiologist during the COVID-19 pandemic and into the monkeypox global health emergency.