Past Members

Julie Rushmore

I completed a dual DVM/PhD program at the University of Georgia in 2017, and simultaneously I completed a postdoc in the Jolles lab from 2015-2017. I am currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the One Health Institute, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. I am an epidemiologist that draws on concepts from behavioral ecology and disease ecology to understand how social and ecological drivers affect pathogen-transmission dynamics across a range of study systems, including non-human primates, ungulates, humans, and arthropod vectors. My approach to research incorporates fieldwork, database analysis, and mathematical modeling techniques to examine how complex behavioral mechanisms impact pathogen transmission, both at the population level and at a global level.

Contact: rushmore@ucdavis.edu

Website: http://julierushmore.wixsite.com/diseaseecology

Erin Gorsich

I completed a PhD in the Jolles lab and am currently a research scientist at Colorado State University, Department of Biology. I am a quantitative disease ecologist with broad interests in disease dynamics, wildlife health, and conservation. My work combines host ecology and community ecology to understand infection dynamics.

Contact: eringorsich@gmail.com

Website: http://www.eringorsich.com

Hannah Tavalire

I completed a PhD in the Jolles lab, where my work focused on characterizing resistance to bovine tuberculosis in wild African buffalo and determining the genetic basis for this trait. I am currently working as a postdoc on the Early Growth and Development Study (EGDS) with Leslie Leve at University of Oregon, using a quantitative genetics approach to identify heritable components of the microbiome and other related child health traits. My broad research interests center around determining the genetic and environmental basis for phenotypic traits using genomic and classical quantitative genetics approaches. Specifically, I am interested in the intimate coevolutionary relationships between hosts and their symbionts, whether these relationships are categorized as parasitic, commensal, or mutualistic in nature.

Contact: tavalire@uoregon.edu

Heather Broughton

I completed a DVM at Oregon State University before earning a PhD in the Jolles lab. For my PhD, I studied the health effects of feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) on African lions (Panthera leo) living in Kruger National Park, South Africa. My study focused on immunologic, clinical, and endocrine changes associated with FIV infection in lions. I am currently an instructor of anatomy and physiology at OSU Cascades in Bend, OR.

Contact: broughth@oregonstate.edu

Johannie Spaan

I completed a PhD in the Jolles lab in 2017. I received my bachelor's degree of technology in nature conservation at Tshwane University of Technology in South Africa. In 2012, I received the UNESCO-L'Oreal International Fellowship for Young Women in Life Sciences. My PhD focus on stress physiology in free-ranging female African buffalo. I am using fecal glucocorticoid metabolites as an integrative measure of stress and relating that to environment, demographic factors, and immunological and infectious outcomes.

Contact: spaanj@oregonstate.edu

Brian Dugovich

I completed my PhD in the Jolles lab in 2019, received my DVM from Oregon State University in 2010 and BA from Washington and Jefferson College in 2004. My research projects include comparative immunology of captive ungulates, ecoimmunology and disease ecology of desert bighorn sheep, and epidemiology of foot-and-mouth disease in African buffalo. My main interests are conservation medicine and the human-animal-wildlife interface.

Contact: dugovicb@oregonstate.edu

Claire Couch

I completed my PhD in the Jolles lab and am now a postdoc with the Oregon Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit.

My PhD research was on the relationship between microbiomes, health, and behavior in wild ungulates. In addition to microbiomes and disease ecology, I am also interested in physiology, movement ecology, social networks, and conservation management.

Contact:

claire.couch@oregonstate.edu

Caroline Glidden

I completed my PhD in the Jolles lab in 2020. I studied mechanisms promoting co-existence of blood born parasites in African buffalo, with aim of elucidating how anthropogenic change interfering with these mechanisms alters community composition and host health. Generally, I am interested in disease ecology, complexity science, community ecology, evolutionary ecology, theoretical ecology, ecological statistics, wildlife conservation, and One Health.

Contact: gliddeca@oregonstate.edu

Anne Devan-Song

I completed my PhD in the Jolles lab in 2021. I used a network analytic approach to studying diseases at the human-wildlife interface. Drawing from tools in disease ecology, conservation biogeography, and network analysis, I explored (1) drivers of the wildlife trade network evolution and topology, and implications for disease spread, (2) ecological drivers of snakebite envenoming, and (3) contact heterogeneity in amphibians.

Contact: anne.devansong@oregonstate.edu

Website: devansong.weebly.com