After my undergraduate work at Rutgers, I took a year off and interned with the National Marine Life Center in Bourne, MA where I gained hands-on experience with marine mammal rehabilitation. It was this experience that sparked my interest in marine mammal health and motivated me to pursue a graduate degree. I then moved to Maine for a Master’s program at the University of New England studying gray seal diet using traditional and molecular methods.

Here at UMaine, my dissertation focuses on using a One Health perspective to investigate drivers of disease outbreaks in two Northwest Atlantic pinnipeds: gray and harbor seals. I am interested in using molecular and genomic techniques to elucidate mechanisms that influence disease susceptibility in pinnipeds, and understand why gray seals are more resistant to viral diseases than harbor seals. Additionally, I am interested in learning how environmental factors, such as environmental contaminants, may contribute to increased disease prevalence and exploring the link between humans and pinnipeds in coastal ecosystems. I am part of the first cohort of UMaine’s One Health & the Environment National Science Foundation Research Traineeship program, through which I am engaged in training focused on using an interdisciplinary approach to solve emerging, complex issues at the intersection of animal, human, and environmental health.