Kayla Kauffman
2023 PHCAKayla studies how parasite sharing between wildlife, domestic animals, and people is affected by land use change and habitat degradation. For her PhD research, she uses spatial data to build contact networks that form transmission pathways for infectious diseases. Then tests the predictions made by these networks across a suite of helminths, bacteria, and viruses. She also uses experimental perturbations or interventions to short-circuit disease transmission or emergence. Broadly, she believes there are many opportunities to deliver effective and efficient public health interventions that are rooted in healthy, functioning ecological systems.