Following my Peace Corps tour, I returned to school and completed my Master’s in Epidemiology and Ph.D. in Entomology – a total of 11 years of college! I then became a commissioned officer and entomologist in the U.S. Navy.Â
My 6½ years on active duty gave me a broad foundation of vector surveillance and control methods. It was great training for a career as a public health entomologist. It also provided me opportunities to work and travel in Italy, Honduras, Argentina, Japan, Ghana, Yemen, and Egypt. I love to travel, so getting to spend time in those countries was fantastic! I now work for a state health department.Â
At first, talking to large groups of people was really hard. But I kept working at it, and now I’m very comfortable speaking in front of people. I think that vector-borne diseases are so interesting because each disease is maintained in nature by an arthropod vector, a vertebrate host, and a pathogen. In order to understand vector-borne disease dynamics, you need to learn about the biology of all three and how they interact with each other in nature. There’s always something new to learn!Â