MCM Program Leadership and Contributing Faculty

Wildlife medicine; Conservation; African apes; Zoonoses; Field diagnostics; Epidemiology

Zoonotic diseases of public health importance; Wildlife diseases surveillance and epidemiology, especially rabies, amphibian chytridiomycosis, and white nose syndrome in bats; Disease control methods in free-ranging populations; Conservation medicine

My past and present research interests are aligned with One Health, gender and emerging pandemics threats. In the past, through my PhD and immediately after, I worked to develop low-cost non-invasive models for immunization(oral and sublingual). On engagement with the USAID/EPT project, most of my interests are in supporting countries to build capacity to be able to prevent, detect and respond to emerging pandemics. These are accomplished through working with faculty, students and in-service personnel in Africa to offer short courses on outbreak investigation and response, develop continuous professional development courses for in service personnel as well as train students to be field ready. My current research interests are aligned with the Emerging Pandemics Threat program and include finding best methods to integrate One Health into community-based project, developing integrated surveillance programs for Infectious diseases of zoonotic origin, and analyzing social, cultural and gender-related issues as they apply to global health and infectious diseases management.

Health of free-ranging wildlife; Wildlife rehabilitation and reintroduction; Conservation medicine; Infectious disease ecology and zoonoses, especially pathogen transmission from humans to other animals; Cat and dog population control, especially in lower and middle income countries

My research spans multiple levels of analysis (from proximate to ultimate) by incorporating in depth observations at different biological scales (from molecular to population level). My approach to research integrates molecular and genetic approaches with elements of animal behavior, ecology, evolution and phylogenetics with the experimental power of model systems to answer fundamental questions about the evolution of reproduction in disease vectors and other insect model systems of significance to humanity. Recently, much of my work has focused on Anopheles mosquitoes, the principal vectors of malaria. However, I am interested in switching my focus to local mosquito species and other arthropod vectors. General Research Interests - Vector Biology - Pathogen-Vector Interactions and Coevolution - Sexual Selection