Transforming Landscapes and the Ecology of Scale - Understanding Disease Emergence at the Human-Wildlife-Environmental Interface
Speaker: Kathleen Alexander, Virginia Tech
Bio: Kathleen Alexander is a distinguished scholar with a strong academic background from the University of California, Davis. She earned her Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in 1982, followed by a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.) in 1994, and a Ph.D. in 1995. Her education reflects a comprehensive expertise in both practical and theoretical aspects of veterinary science.
Her research program is directed at exploring and understanding the factors that influence the emergence and persistence of emerging and re-emerging diseases at the human-wildlife-environmental interface. She embraces a systems biology approach to ecosystem health integrated with public health, beginning within host-pathogen dynamics and extending to the livelihoods of communities living with wildlife, including the impact on ecosystem function and local communities themselves. Her approach integrates critical crosscutting elements that can influence infectious disease dynamics such as culture and behavior, gender dimensions, and climate change.