Fellowship Trainees

Postdoctoral Fellowship in Wildlife Health

2026

Wendy Leuenberger, PhD

Program of Work: Effects of Neonicotinoid Regulations on Bee Communities

Mentor: Laura Melissa Guzman (Cornell University, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences)

Collaborators: Alejandro Calixto (Cornell Integrated Pest Management)

Jaime Ortiz Pachar, PhD

Program of Work: Safeguarding the One Health Value of Galápagos Mangroves: Genomics‑Driven Solutions for Global Wildlife Health and Ecosystem Resilience

Mentor: Nina Overgaard Therkildsen (Cornell University, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences)

Collaborators: Erik Enbody (Cornell University, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences), Nicolás Moity (Charles Darwin Foundation), the Galápagos National Park

Chandika Rani Ganesh Babu, PhD

Program of Work: From Genes to Management: A Transcriptome-Informed Framework for Chronic Wasting Disease Surveillance in White-Tailed Deer

Mentor: Krysten Schuler (Cornell University, College of Veterinary Medicine)

Collaborators: Nick Pinizzotto (National Deer Association)

2025

Kayla Buhler, PhD

Program of Work: Assessment of Allostatic Load in Bears: Implications for Sustainable Conservation of Polar Bears and Management Through Indigenous Harvests

Mentor: Raina Plowright (Cornell University, College of Veterinary Medicine)

Collaborators: Amandine Gamble (Cornell University, College of Veterinary Medicine), Christian Sonne & Rune Dietz (Aarhus University), Morten Tryland (University of Inland Norway), Alina Evans (University of Inland Norway, Scandinavian Brown Bear Research Project), Naima Jutha (Government of the Northwest Territories)

Kristina Ceres, DVM, PhD

Program of Work: Assessing the Landscape of Infectious Disease Risk to Endangered Carnivores Using Non-Invasive Sampling and Eco-Epidemiological Modeling

Mentor: Martin Gilbert (Cornell University, College of Veterinary Medicine)

Collaborators: Dmitri Petrov (Stanford University), Laura Goodman (Cornell University, College of Veterinary Medicine), Evan Cooch (Cornell University, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences), Nucharin Songasen (Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute)

Postdoctoral Fellowship in Free-Ranging Wildlife Pathology

2024

Carmen Smith, DVM, DACVP

Program of Work: Free-Ranging Wildlife Pathology Focused on Disease Outbreaks, Mortality Events, and Capacity-Building Around the World

Mentors: Martin Gilbert, Steve Osofsky, Andrew Miller (Cornell University, College of Veterinary Medicine)

Residency in Wildlife Population Health

2025

Taylor Haefs, DVM, MPH, CWR

Program of Work: ACZM-approved four-year residency training program in Wildlife Population Health

Mentors: Sara Childs-Sanford, Cynthia Hopf-Dennis (Cornell University, College of Veterinary Medicine)