Dr. Heather Simmons is the Director for the Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases. Dr. Simmons has a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree and a Masters in Veterinary Public Health in infectious disease epidemiology, both from Texas A&M University (TAMU). She acts as the Chief Executive Officer in the Institute. She has over 16 years of experience working on infectious diseases for emerging and transboundary animal diseases for capacity development and educational activities targeting youth and professional Veterinary Services. She has developed several certification programs and has helped to deliver IIADs digital education programs in surveillance, epidemiology, risk analysis and executive laboratory management.
Dr. Simmons has acted as a resource SME for the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). For OIE, she has provided expertise to the OIE ad hoc Working Group for Veterinary Paraprofessionals, the OIE Veterinary Paraprofessional Expert Pool and the OIE Veterinary Emergency Management Network. For FAO, she has provided curriculum development and training expertise for the Frontline In-Service Applied Veterinary Epidemiology Training Program (ISAVET) in West, Central and East Africa. She was a previously the Chair for the Committee on Animal Emergency Management with the United States Animal Health Association (USAHA). From 2014 – 2020, she previously served as the Associate Department Head and Extension Program Leader for Veterinary Extension with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service overseeing all youth development activities for Veterinary Extension in Texas. Her research has resulted in authorship of several peer-reviewed and OIE publications and 2 textbooks. Dr. Simmons receive the FP Jaggi Veterinary Public Health Award and the Texas A&M University Systems Vice Chancellor Award in International Development.
As IIAD’s Associate Director, Rachel Whisenant is responsible for managing unit operations to advance program success and ensure alignment with the Director’s strategic vision. With a Master of Business Administration from Texas A&M International University, Whisenant has been a member of IIAD since 2009. Her tenure is marked by extensive experience in program and organizational management, research administration, and financial management.
Dr. Christine Budke is a Senior Lead Scientist in Risk Prevention for the Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases (IIAD). She is also a tenured professor of epidemiology, interim department head for the Department of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences, and the coordinator of the Veterinary Public Health & Epidemiology graduate program at Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (VMBS). Dr. Budke has a doctor of veterinary medicine (DVM) degree from Purdue University and a PhD in infectious disease epidemiology from the University of Basel/Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute. Her research focuses on epidemiology, burden of disease indicators, zoonotic diseases, and international veterinary medicine and public health.
Dr. Budke has over 20 years of experience working on infectious diseases in resource-poor areas and has a special interest in neglected tropical diseases and neglected zoonotic diseases. She acts as a resource advisor for the World Health Organization (WHO) Foodborne Disease Burden Epidemiology Reference Group (FERG) and has contributed to the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study. Dr. Budke was a visiting professor at National Chung-Hsing University in Taichung, Taiwan in 2019 and was accepted to the Fulbright Specialist roster in 2021. She is an Academic Editor of PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases and an Associate Editor of Preventive Veterinary Medicine. She is also the recipient of the VMBS Bridges Teaching and Service Award and the Texas Veterinary Medical Association Teaching Award.
Jimmy Tickel, DVM is a veterinarian at the Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases (IIAD), serving as an animal emergency management subject matter resource for the Institute. Tickel’s expertise is specifically sought after for issues related to disease and disaster mitigation, prevention and response on a national and international level.
As an IIAD veterinarian, Tickel oversees and is involved with a number of projects focused on emergency preparedness. He serves as a technical expert on the FAO Good Emergency Management Practices (GEMP) Technical Working Group and represents IIAD as a OIE Collaborating Center to EMVETNET in the area of disease preparedness, threat reduction. Tickel is also working to advance US FMD Vaccine Planning and implementation as well as Mortality Management Capability through two NADPRP grants with the first being a sponsored national Tabletop Exercise and the second development of decision tool for centralized carcass disposal. In addition, he is currently working on a game-based learning system, initially funded by the Department of Homeland Security designed to ultimately increase Foreign Animal Disease critical infrastructure emergency preparedness.
In September 2018, Tickel retired and ended his 28 years of service to the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, where he had served as Incident Commander/Operations Section Chief for the Emergency Programs Division of the Department. Tickel is also CEO of JLT Consulting LLC. Over the years, he has had the pleasure of training/presenting on Transboundary Animal Disease and Disaster Response/Preparedness in 45 states. Tickel holds a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (summa cum laude) from North Carolina State University and also serves as an Adjunct Professor, having had the honor of training over 1000 graduates in disaster and disease preparedness.
Ty is a current undergraduate Biology Major intending to attend veterinary school. He has experience with animal handling and care. He is an Eagle Scout and avid outdoorsman.
Madeline holds a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Texas A&M University and a Master of Science in Environmental Policy and Management from the University of Denver. As the Grants Program Coordinator, Madeline facilitates and contributes to proposal development, budget development, and project coordination. She has experience assisting academic research and contract maintenance and intends to utilize her background and passion for animal science and environmental management to support IIAD’s current and future projects.
Sunil Joshi received his Bachelor of Science in biology from Texas A&M University. He then went to Houston Community College and completed an Accounting Program. He has several years of experience working in various accounting roles. Recently, he has worked at H&R Block, and also worked as an Accounts Receivable Specialist.
Sunil’s duties support the Institute’s business functions through the management of accounts, accounts payable, procurement and purchasing, cash handling and deposits, and the submission of expense reports. He also assists with financial planning and reporting, payroll, asset and space inventory certifications and requirements, and technical information regarding business policies, procedures, services, or programs.
Sarah Manning serves as a Program Manager at the Institute overseeing national and international programs focusing on the agriculture sector and initiatives related to animal health, livestock systems, epidemiology, and veterinary science. Manning’s expertise includes proposal and program development and implementation, strategic planning, project governance, stakeholder and public relations, monitoring and evaluation, curriculum development, marketing and communications, and graphic design. Manning holds a Bachelor of Science in Animal Science (with a concentration in Animal Industries and a minor in Business) from Tarleton State University.
Laura Peterson is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Religion with a Christian Counseling Cognate from Liberty University. She holds an Associate Degree in Occupational Studies in Massage Therapy from the Colorado School of the Healing Arts. As an Administrative Associate, Mrs. Peterson is responsible for coordinating and facilitating IIAD’s daily administrative activities and interactions. She assists in interdepartmental and stakeholder communications, organizational planning, meeting and travel coordination, Institute-wide reporting, audits and reviews, and file maintenance and management. With ample experience in administrative, customer service, and project management initiatives, she is dedicated to leveraging her background and passion for Animal Science to advance IIAD’s current and future projects.
Julie Stowell-Moss is a Program Manager at the Institute, facilitating program development, management, and implementation for national and international projects covering animal health, epidemiology, and veterinary science. Stowell-Moss’ focus areas include proposal development, budget oversight, curriculum structure, interactive learning, project training and delivery. Stowell-Moss holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Women’s studies and Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction from New Mexico State University. She brings extensive experience in professional learning, curriculum and instruction, online teaching and project management.
David Castellan works as an International Veterinary Epidemiology Consultant. He was previously employed as Veterinary Epidemiologist with the Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases, Texas A&M University and as Senior Veterinary Epidemiologist, FAO ECTAD, Region of Asia and Pacific. In Asia he was engaged in supporting the development of regional epidemiology capacity, including the Field Epidemiology Training Program for Veterinarians (FETPV) training centers in Thailand, China and Indonesia as well as delivering FETPV training programs in Southeast and South Asia countries. He holds the degrees: Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, University of Guelph; Master of Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Poultry Medicine Residency, University of California, Davis; and is board certified with the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine and the American College of Poultry Veterinarians. Additional professional contributions in Canada, USA, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, include the development and delivery of: 1) country contingency plans for avian influenza; 2) an avian influenza vaccination planning tool; 3) an epidemiology mapping tool; 4) the Tripartite Joint Risk Assessment Methodology; and 5) outbreak investigations, surveillance and field research studies in developed and developing countries. Dr. Castellan led the development of Frontline In Service Applied Veterinary Epidemiology Training (ISAVET) in Africa. His work focuses on evidence-based decision-making using applied epidemiology at the human-animal-environmental interface within a One Health approach. Dr. Castellan is the recipient of awards related to the prevention and control of avian influenza and virulent Newcastle disease as well as the American Veterinary Medical Association Global Veterinary Service Award (2020).
Animal Diseases and Environmental Management
Gary Flory
Gary Flory is a biologist and environmental scientist focused on preventing and responding to the threat of transboundary animal diseases. He spent 30 years with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality serving as the Agricultural Program Manager. In this role, Gary provided leadership on numerous issues surrounding the nexus of agriculture, the environment, and public health. He also founded the global consulting firm G.A. Flory Consulting to provide services including animal disease and natural disaster research and response, agricultural emergency planning, and agricultural emergency training.
Gary has conducted trainings, presented research findings, and been deployed to animal disease outbreaks in a number of countries, including Timor Leste, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Vietnam, Tunisia, South Korea, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, and Azerbaijan. Organizations supported by Gary include the United States Department of Agriculture, the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH). Gary currently serves on FAO’s African Swine Fever Global Pool of Expertise. He was awarded the Agency Star Award by the Governor of Virginia for his community service and leadership.
Veterinary Emergency Management
Gary Vroegindewey, DVM, MSS, DACVPM
Dr. Vroegindewey is the Director of the One Health Program and the Center for Human and Animal Health in Appalachia at Lincoln Memorial University College of Veterinary Medicine, Emeritus Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine, and holds a Master of Strategic Studies degree. He is Chair of the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) ad hoc group on Veterinary Emergencies, Expert for UN Secretary Generals Mechanism, Office of Disarmament Affairs, and former consultant to UN International Atomic Energy Agency and the White House Security Council Food and Agriculture Working Group. Dr. Vroegindewey was awarded the AVMA XIIth International Congress Award for his international work in over 20 countries.
Animal Health Economics
Jonathan Rushton
Jonathan Rushton is an agricultural economist who specialises in the economics of animal health and food systems. His principal research interests are the: Global Burden of Animal Diseases (GBADs) where he directs a global programme with OIE (https://animalhealthmetrics.org); economics of antimicrobial use and resistance in livestock; and assessment of the multidimensionality of food quality and public health. He has recently completed studies on the economics of antimicrobial use in livestock in SE Asia for FAO and the economics of new livestock vaccines for the EU funded SAPHIR project and is currently involved in research on antimicrobial use in livestock in Vietnam (VIPARC), India (DARPI) and the EU (ROADMAP). He is working with IIAD on the economic dimensions of sustainable laboratory systems, a project funded by OIE. Jonathan embraces One Health approaches in the search for solutions to society’s health problems.
Jonathan is professor of animal health and food systems economics at the Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, leads a University Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Food Systems (https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/centre-for-sustainable-food-systems/) and is part of the N8 Agrifood programme (http://www.n8research.org.uk). He is also adjunct Professor in the School of Behavioural, Cognitive & Social Sciences of the University of New England, Australia and president of the International Society for Economics and Social Sciences of Animal Health (http://www.isessah.com). In 2020 he became a Senior IIAD Fellow in Epidemiology at Texas A&M.
Transboundary Animal Diseases
Subhash Morzaria, BVSc, MSc, PhD, CIBiol, MRCVS
Dr. Subhash Morzaria is a veterinarian with over 35 years of international experience in animal health, high impact zoonotic and non-zoonotic diseases, and livestock development. He has worked for several national and international organisations in Africa, UK and Asia and held senior research and managerial positions in various institutions that include the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA) of the UK government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases (ILRAD) and International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) of the Consultative Group on Agriculture (CGIAR), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. In Africa, his worked focused on addressing a range of animal disease problems focusing on the improvement and commercialisation of existing technologies and development of novel vaccines against a range of vector-borne pathogens using immuno-molecular approaches. In Asia he has been involved in developing a number of regional and international strategies for prevention and control of avian influenza and other major transboundary animal diseases (TADs) including FMD and CSF, Including the development and promotion of One Health concepts. From 2015-2018, as the Senior Animal Health Adviser to the Animal Health Programme of FAO based in Rome, he led the USAID-funded Emerging Pandemic Threats Programme. He has authored over 200 scientific papers in international refereed journals and has supervised a number of PhD students in the Africa, UK and Asia. He is also Adjunct Professor at University of Murdoch, Perth, Australia, and serves or has served as a member of scientific advisory committees of a number institutions/organizations including GALVMED, EcoHealth Alliance, Institute of Infectious Animal Diseases of the Texas A&M University, and PREDICT-2 Programme of the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, and South African Centre for Infectious Diseases Surveillance (SACIDS) One Health Foundation.
Student Externs 2022 – 2024
Master of Public Health Candidate (UoM)
Jaclyn Melvin, DVM
4th Year Veterinary/Public Health Student (OSU)
Shridula Hegde
4th Year Veterinary Student (TAMU)
Gabriel Platas
4th Year Veterinary Student (OSU)
Madison Tryzbiak
Master of Public Health Candidate (UoM)
Jaclyn Melvin, DVM
Spring 2025
Dr. Jaclyn Melvin attended Cornell University to earn her Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Science (2017) and her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree (2021). She is currently pursuing her Master of Public Health degree through the University of Minnesota. From 2021 to 2023, Dr. Melvin worked as a production animal veterinarian in central Maryland and southeastern Pennsylvania. In 2023, she transitioned to regulatory veterinary work and currently serves as a Veterinary Medical Officer for the Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service in the United States Department of Agriculture. Her present work focuses on the enforcement of the Horse Protection Act. Dr. Melvin has strong interests in veterinary public health, One Health, and zoonotic and transboundary diseases. She is particularly interested in disease surveillance, prevention, and control efforts for the nation’s livestock. She hopes to learn more about such efforts during her externship with the IIAD, and she wants to become more involved in responses to animal disease outbreaks as her career with the USDA continues. Dr. Melvin currently resides in New Orleans, Louisiana with her wife Lynn.
4th Year Veterinary/Public Health Student (OSU)
Shridula Hegde
Spring 2025
Short bio in 3rd person: Shridula “Shri” Hegde is a dual degree candidate in the DVM-MPH program at Ohio State University, with a Bachelor of Science in Veterinary Science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In May 2024, she completed an externship with the Instituto Interamericano de Cooperation para la Agricultura (IICA) in San Jose, Costa Rica, where she established a fellowship, aimed at advancing African Swine Fever (ASF) prevention and response efforts. A travel scholarship supported her work there. In 2023, Shridula volunteered with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), where she analyzed essential learning outcomes and evaluated competency tools for day-one veterinary graduates, particularly in antimicrobial resistance (AMR). She presented posters on her research in canine hookworms at the National Veterinary Scholars Symposium in 2022 and 2023. In 2023, Shridula delivered an oral presentation on canine hookworms at the American Association of Veterinary Parasitologists (AAVP) and presented on the American dog tick at the Rocky Mountain Conference 2018. Her interests lie in veterinary public health and parasitology focusing on international work.
4th Year Veterinary Student (TAMU)
Gabriel Platas
Spring 2024
Gabriel Platas obtained a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from Texas A&M – Kingsville and is currently a veterinary student at Texas A&M University – College Station. His interests include preventive, emergency, and disaster medicine. Platas became invested in public health during his final year as an undergraduate where he recognized the importance of the human-animal-environment interface and how one disparity may lead to a cascade of consequential events. He is excited to further his professional development at IIAD and becoming an asset to the organization.
Gabriel is currently Certified in Public Health through the National Board of Public Health Examiners and plans to become a rural mixed practice veterinarian where he can apply One Health initiatives to the surrounding communities he will be serving. After gaining clinical experience, he would like to specialize in preventive medicine and become a member of the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine.
4th Year Veterinary Student (OSU)
Madison Tryzbiak
Spring 2024
Madison Tryzbiak is currently a dual fourth-year veterinary and final semester Master of Public Health student at Oklahoma State University. Tryzbiak developed an interest in public health after spending a year doing comparative biology research, where she discovered how important a veterinary perspective is to the One Health initiative. She is now dedicated to taking a One Health approach to how she practices medicine and advocating for veterinarians to be in public health positions. After graduation, Tryzbiak plans to complete a rotating internship and zoological residency with the intention of furthering the One Health initiative in this field.
