Spring 2026
January 20, 2026
CEID Rm. 111
4:00 PM
Annual Lecture: Dr. Jonathan Towner
Marburg virus: understanding replication and emergence of the original filovirus
Jonathan Towner leads the Virus Host Ecology Section within the Viral Special Pathogens Branch at the US CDC, where he has worked since 1997. He received his BA in microbiology and immunology from the University of California, Berkeley, and his PhD in virology from the University of California, Irvine. His team studies the ecology of high-consequence viruses, primarily filoviruses, with emphasis on identifying their natural reservoir hosts and understanding spillover to humans. His team played major roles in the discovery of the Egyptian rousette bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus) as the natural reservoir for marburgviruses and in the discovery of Bundibugyo virus, the newest ebolavirus known to cause human disease. His talk will focus on naturally occurring factors that influence the periodic emergence of Marburg virus and the use of micro-GPS technology to track Egyptian rousette bat movements to map their intersection with human activities.
February 24, 2026
CEID Rm. 111
3:00 PM
Dr. Claire Teitelbaum Workshop
More information to follow.
March 3, 2026
CEID Rm. 111
3:00 PM
Dr. Catherine Hernandez Seminar
More information to follow.
March 17, 2026
CEID Rm. 111
3:00 PM
Dr. Chase Griffin Workshop
More information to follow.
April 7, 2026
CEID Rm. 111
3:00 PM
Victor Felix Computational Clinic Workshop
More information to follow.
April 21, 2026
CEID Rm. 111
3:00 PM
Dr. Manuel Ruiz Aravena
More information to follow.
April 28, 2026
CEID Annual Retreat
Keynote: Dr. Arie Havelaar
More information to follow.
Fall 2025
August 27, 2025
CEID Rm. 111
4:30 PM
Welcome Back Event
Please join us for our Welcome Back Event.
We will provide snacks and drinks to enjoy in the CEID Conference Room.
This event is open to all CEID members and anyone interested in joining the CEID. Please feel free to pass this along to anyone that you think is appropriate to join CEID, but has not already done so.
September 16, 2025
CEID Rm. 111
12:30 PM
Dr. Ellen Haynes Workshop
Snaking my way into wildlife health: My journey as a wildlife veterinarian
Ellen Haynes’s career as a wildlife veterinarian has taken many turns over the years, from wildlife rehabilitation veterinarian, through research on snake fungal disease and Guinea worm disease, and now as a Regional Wildlife Health Coordinator. In this talk, she will cover her professional journey, her interests in snake health, and the current regional structure of wildlife management in North America.
September 23, 2025
CEID Rm. 111
12:30 PM
Dr. Macy Kailing Workshop
Identifying patterns and processes of sex-biases for an emerging disease of wildlife
Macy Kailing is a wildlife disease ecologist and conservation biologist broadly interested in the ecological and evolutionary processes that structure variation in disease response across scales. In this talk, she describes her field studies of bats affected by white-nose syndrome that characterized the causes and consequences of seasonal sex-biased infections, scaling impacts from individuals to populations. Additionally, she will share new results on the variable effects of seasonality on wombat-mange dynamics, scaling daily changes in parasite survival to long-term population trends.
October 7, 2025
CEID Rm. 111
12:30 PM
Dr. Marta Valldeperes Workshop
Old story: dealing with sarcoptic mange in the Iberian ibex
Sarcoptic mange is a skin parasitosis that has been threatening some susceptible wildlife populations worldwide. Specifically, in the Iberian ibex was first detected in the late 1980s causing local population declines with mortality rates up to 95%. Despite the numerous studies on this disease, managing outbreaks in wildlife remains a challenge when they occur, making sarcoptic mange a feared disease for most wildlife managers working with susceptible species. We had the opportunity to study an outbreak of sarcoptic mange in Iberian ibex from the beginning while several management actions were attempted simultaneously. This allowed us to assess the impact of sarcoptic mange on the population demographics, the changes in ibexes’ behavior associated with the disease, and the evaluation of some management measures implemented aiming to stop or mitigate the effects of the outbreak.
November 4, 2025
CEID Rm. 111
12:30 PM
Dr. Mark Wilber Seminar
From declines to recoveries to persistence: a journey through the population and community dynamics of amphibian-pathogen systems
November 11, 2025
CEID Rm. 111
12:30 PM
Dr. Kerri-Ann Anderson Workshop
An Assessment of Health Decision-Making Preferences and The Dynamics of Epidemics
Vaccine hesitancy is a complex and multifaceted issue that remains a priority of public health concerns. Previous research to better understand the barriers, facilitators, and correlates of adult vaccination in the U.S. focus primarily on basic demographics, knowledge, and beliefs or perceptions about the vaccine or disease. Stagnating vaccination rates, however, suggest new approaches are needed to understand and increase vaccination uptake and mitigate outbreak risk. Infectious disease outbreak forecasting, inference and decision-making rely heavily on mathematical models. Few disease transmission models, however, effectively incorporate information regarding individual beliefs, perceptions, and decision-making defaults (“heuristics”) and their intersection with demographic categories like age. With this work we aim to strengthen infectious disease models by integrating an operationalized conceptual model of health decision-making preferences as we explore the effectiveness of targeted intervention strategies for outbreak control.
November 18, 2025
CEID Rm. 111
12:30 PM
Dr. Olivia Ginn & Dr. Tamika Lunn Workshop
Aerosol sampling to advance biosurveillance and primary pandemic prevention
Bats are reservoir hosts for three of the ten virus groups of pandemic concern as designated by the World Health Organization, and are susceptible to bacterial agents common in diseases of humans and livestock, but pathogen surveillance is constrained by logistical challenges to collecting samples, including the need for specialist, on-the-ground personnel, as well as an incomplete knowledge of the bat pathobiome (the unknown “zoonotic pool”). Research demonstrates that pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2, can be transmitted via aerosols and remain in the air for hours, suggesting that bioaerosol sampling may provide an accessible, cost-effective, and non-intrusive alternative to traditional monitoring approaches. We assessed the efficacy of bioaerosol environmental surveillance through a pilot sampling campaign in Georgia, targeting a test system with known prevalence in the area—Pseudogymnoascus destructans, the causative agent of White Nose Syndrome (WNS) in bats. We collected aerosol, surface swab, soil, water, and environmental feces samples at five caves and three culverts and assessed each for the molecular detection of P. destructans via digital PCR. We will also assess broader bacterial, fungal, and viral communities through bioinformatics approaches. This presentation will highlight the outcomes of this pilot study and discuss the potential of bioaerosol sampling for monitoring bat-associated pathogens and advancing environmental surveillance of zoonotic disease risk.