My research interests lie in exploring and better understanding the continuing impact that humans have on their environment, either directly in the case of habitat use or indirectly such as in the case of introduced species or domestic animals that now reside in a habitat due to human habitation.  I am particularly interested in studying the effect that domestic dogs, Canis familiaris, have on the Serengeti ecosystem in Tanzania.  
In the Serengeti ecosystem domestic dogs interact closely with humans, livestock, and wildlife populations due to lack of separation between protected areas and human settlements. Domestic dogs are important parts of the food web as well as disease reservoirs for rabies and canine distemper virus (CDV), which have been implicated as the cause of drastic declines in Serengeti wild carnivores (such as lions, Panthera leo,  and African wild dogs, Lycaon pictus).  Rabies also poses grave risks to human public health in the Serengeti and worldwide.

My dissertation research focuses on analyzing demographic data for domestic dogs collected via household surveys during these vaccination campaigns to study the impact of the vaccinations on domestic dog population growth.  Though a ring vaccination program through the Serengeti Health Initiative corresponds with a decrease in incidence of rabies and CDV in wildlife, there is only preliminary information on what effect the vaccinations have on domestic dog lifespan and population growth, how numbers of dogs maintained in households may change, costs of the vaccination campaign, and the disease dynamics of maintaining the vaccination ring.

This project is a multi-disciplinary endeavor combining the dynamic interactions of disease transmission, human and wildlife health concerns, human-wildlife conflicts, community development, as well as my own lifelong interests in wildlife ecology and domestic dogs.