2021 Speakers
Jonna Mazet
Founding Executive Director, UC Davis One Health Institute
Dr. Jonna Mazet, DVM, MPVM, PhD, is the Vice Provost – Grand Challenges at UC Davis. She is Chancellor’s Leadership Professor of Epidemiology and Disease Ecology and was the founding Executive Director of the One Health Institute in the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, where she has focused on global health problem solving, especially for emerging infectious disease and conservation challenges. Dr. Mazet is active in international One Health education, service, and research programs, most notably in relation to disease transmission among wildlife, domestic animals, and people and the ecological drivers of novel disease dynamics. Over the past decade, she was the Global Director of a greater than $200 million viral emergence early warning project, named PREDICT, that was developed with the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats Program. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2013 in recognition of her successful and innovative approach to emerging environmental and global health threats. She was appointed to the National Academies Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats, which was created to assist the federal government with critical science and policy issues related to the COVID-19 crisis and other emerging health threats
Richard Cash
Lecturer, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Richard A. Cash, MD, MPH, is a senior lecturer on Global Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He began his international career in 1967 at the Cholera Research Laboratory in Dhaka, Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) where he and colleagues conducted the first clinical trials of oral rehydration therapy (ORT) in adult and pediatric cholera patients and patients with other infectious causes of diarrhea. He’s continued work on infectious diseases, scaling up health programs, and research ethics in low and middle-income countries. As a visiting faculty in a number of international institutions, he’s continued his interest in teaching and institution building.
Steve Osofsky
Professor, Cornell University
Dr. Steve Osofsky, Jay Hyman Professor of Wildlife Health & Health Policy at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, has worn many hats – wildlife veterinarian in Africa, zoo veterinarian, Biodiversity Program Advisor at the U. S. Agency for International Development (USAID), overseer of rhino, elephant and tiger conservation programs at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and Executive Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s wildlife health programs around the world. As one of the intellectual catalysts of the One Health as well as Planetary Health concepts, Steve’s focus is on the relationships among wildlife health, domestic animal health, and human health and well-being – all as underpinned by environmental stewardship. Dr. Osofsky (Cornell DVM ’89) sees his move into academia as an exciting and urgent opportunity to help train the next generation of One Health professionals. Steve has recently helped the University launch The Cornell Wildlife Health Center (wildlife.cornell.edu).
Laura Kahn
Research Scholar, Princeton University
Dr. Laura H. Kahn is a physician, policy researcher, educator, and author. In 2006, she published Confronting Zoonoses, Linking Human and Veterinary Medicine in the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases that helped launch the One Health Initiative (http://www.onehealthinitiative.com) which is a global effort to promote the One Health concept that human, animal, plant, environmental, and ecosystem health are linked. She is the author of two books: Who’s in Charge? Leadership During Epidemics, Bioterror Attacks, and Other Public Health Crises (2nd edition published in 2020 by Praeger Security International) and One Health and the Politics of Antimicrobial Resistance published in 2016 by Johns Hopkins University Press. In June 2020, she launched her Coursera course: Bats, Ducks, and Pandemics: An Introduction to One Health Policy, which has over 4600 students enrolled from around the world. In 2014, she received a Presidential Award for Meritorious Service from the American Association of Public Health Physicians, and in 2016, the American Veterinary Epidemiology Society (AVES) awarded her with their highest honor for her work in One Health: the K.F. Meyer-James H. Steele Gold Head Cane Award.
Catherine Machalaba
Senior Policy Advisor, EcoHealth Alliance
Dr. Catherine Machalaba is senior policy advisor and senior scientist at EcoHealth Alliance, a scientific non-profit organization working at the nexus of conservation, global health, and capacity strengthening. She manages several research and policy projects with partners around the world, including a One Health study on causes and risk factors for acute febrile illness and work on the economics of One Health to support cost-effective investments to reduce the risk and impact of emerging infectious diseases. She was a lead author of the World Bank Operational Framework for Strengthening Human, Animal and Environmental Public Health Systems at their Interface (“One Health Operational Framework”) published in 2018 to assist countries and donor institutions in implementing One Health approaches. Catherine is the programme officer for the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Wildlife Health Specialist Group, and previously served as Chair of the American Public Health Association’s Veterinary Public Health group. She works closely with several UN agencies and Conventions. She holds an undergraduate degree in Biology, a Masters in Public Health, and a PhD in Environmental and Planetary Health Sciences.
Jürgen A. Richt
Director, NIH Center on Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases
Dr. Richt came to Kansas State University in 2008 as The Regents Distinguished Professor and Kansas Bioscience Eminent Scholar. In 2010, he became Director of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Center of Excellence for Emerging and Zoonotic Animal Diseases (CEEZAD) and in 2020 Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Center on Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (CEZID). He received his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine (DVM) from the University of Munich and a PhD in Virology and Immunology from the University of Giessen, both in Germany. After coming to the United States in 1989, he completed three years of postdoctoral/residency studies at The Johns Hopkins University and later served for eight years as a Veterinary Medical Officer at the National Animal Disease Center (USDA-ARS) in Ames, Iowa. He has edited several books, published more than 260 peer-reviewed manuscripts and raised more than $60 million in grants for veterinary research.
Jaber Belkhiria
Researcher, UC Davis One Health Institute
After completing his doctorate of veterinary medicine at the Veterinary School of Tunis, Jaber was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to complete his Master of Preventive Veterinary Medicine (MPVM) degree. He then continued with a PhD in Epidemiology at UC Davis with the Center of Animal Disease Modeling and Surveillance (CADMS), where he focused on the application of modeling and machine learning into One Health issues. Throughout his career, Jaber has been involved in a variety of projects, particularly in North and West Africa. He also volunteered with various nongovernmental organizations. Currently, Jaber is working with the One Health Workforce Next Generation Team at the One Health Institute.
