- Graduate Student Researcher, One Health Institute
Jessica is a veterinarian and wildlife biologist, currently working towards a PhD in Epidemiology with an emphasis in Wildlife Disease Ecology. Her research interests include One Health, the role of animal social structure and spatial movements in disease transmission, population health of free-ranging wildlife, and the conservation of endangered species and ecosystems. She enjoys multidisciplinary studies that incorporate field work, clinical medicine, GIS mapping, and mathematical modeling.
Her research experience includes modeling infectious disease transmission and epidemic prevention strategies in Channel Island foxes, determining threats to mountain lion persistence in urban southern California and options for conservation, exploring the spatial ecology of invasiv mammals on islands, and identifying prevalence patterns of infectious pneumonia in endangered peninsular bighorn sheep.
Jessica received her B.S. in Animal Biology from UC Davis, her M.S. in Wildlife, and her D.V.M. with an emphasis in Zoological Medicine from UC Davis. She is currently an epidemiology Ph.D. candidate in the Johnson Lab at UC Davis.
Jessica's research is funded by a National Institute of Health T32 Scientist Training Grant in Comparative Medicine.