About

Kayla Kauffman

(she/her)
PhD Candidate
Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology
University of California, Santa Barbara
Young Lab

Research Interests

Community Ecology ⚬ Disease Ecology ⚬ One Health

My academic interests lie at the intersection of wildlife, ecosystem, domestic animal, and human health. This intrigue is borne from my experiences learning about animal agriculture as an undergraduate, researching diseases of wildlife and natural resource management as a master’s student, and independently traveling and volunteering in countries where zoonotic disease and deforestation are acute challenges. I aim to become a leader in the intersectional field of One Health by working to inform scientifically based low-cost solutions to neglected tropical diseases, particularly zoonotic diseases. A major part of my research involves applying perturbations or interventions to short-circuit disease transmission or emergence; I believe that there are many opportunities to deliver effective and efficient public health interventions that are rooted in healthy, functioning ecological systems. In my career, I aim to help close the implementation gap between theoretical and applied disease control measures by experimentally evaluating theoretical findings in real-world multi-host-pathogen systems. I am particularly focused on testing data-driven interventions to prevent or mitigate the spread of emerging or re-emerging zoonoses.

My Ph.D. research is deeply embedded in One Health. I am working to understand how human-induced environmental changes transform the infectious disease risk landscape for wildlife, domestic animals, and people living on the edge of a Marojejy National Park in rural northeastern Madagascar. To do this I am building transmission potential networks based on shared land use and spatial connectivity, then testing if connected individuals are infected with similar suites of parasites. I am also testing if interventions in one species affect other species’ infection status by vaccinating dogs against Leptospirosis, a globally distributed zoonotic disease.