About

I am a wildlife infectious disease veterinarian working at the intersections of disease ecology, anthropology, and genomics. I integrate quantitative and qualitative methods to understand the ecological and socio-cultural context of pathogen spillover. 

I am the Co-Principal Investigator of the Konashen Ecosystem Health Project with Dr. Christopher Shaffer. This project is a collaboration with the Waiwai, an Indigenous Amazonian community who owns and manages the Konashen Amerindian Protected Area (KAPA) in Guyana, South America. Through this long-term partnership, we co-construct research questions focusing on zoonotic disease, wild meat and food security, sustainable resource use, and vector-borne disease.​

Informed by my work in Guyana studying hunter harvested wildlife, I am also leading several projects studying the social-cultural context of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) transmission. This research is in collaboration with Dr. Tiffany Wolf and the Minnesota Center for Prion Research and Outreach to better understand the risk of CWD transmission through the hunting, butchery, processing, and consumption of wild deer in tribal communities throughout the state of Minnesota.