With three decades of experience as a scientist, I have developed my skills to become an accomplished, results-driven, and prolific multidisciplinary professional with a multitude of experience in highly complex scientific environments. I am currently a Full Professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine at Texas Tech University, and am an Emeritus Professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas School of Public Health. Additionally, I currently serve as a Special Government Employee with the US Environmental Protection Agency Human Studies Review Board as the Co-Chair overseeing the specialty areas of science and statistics.
I am formally trained as a multidisciplinary scientist and hold advanced degrees in the life sciences, statistics, and social sciences. I have expert knowledge, skills, and abilities in research, complex quantitative analysis, leadership, grantsmanship, and policy development. In addition to my long-term professorial appointments in academia, I served nearly 10 years as a federal scientist (classified both as a physical scientist and statistician) and worked professionally as the principal ecologist and statistician for an environmental research firm. I currently hold board certifications in public health (CPH; NBPHE), medical and veterinary entomology (BCE; ESA), and have gained designation as an Accredited Professional Statistician (PStat(R); ASA).
My research consistently involves working with multidisciplinary research teams to address novel and complex research questions in public health, biology, and medicine. I apply my work broadly in both a dry-lab setting providing quantitative expertise and advanced analytics, and in a wet-lab setting providing expertise in parasitology and vector biology. My research agenda spans the areas of quantitative ecology, applied biostatistics and epidemiology, medical and veterinary entomology, disease ecology, forensic science and medicine, and the ecology and epidemiology of parasites and vector-borne diseases.