PRINCIPLE INVESTIGATOR

kristian Forbes, MPH, PHD

Kristian is a disease ecologist and eco-immunologist. After completing Bachelor and Master degrees in his native Australia, Kristian moved to Finland for his PhD studies, where he stayed on as a postdoc while also spending time in Kenya, South Africa and the US. He has diverse interests in population and disease ecology, with a particular focus on the maintenance and transmission of zoonotic pathogens in bats and rodents and the effects of anthropogenic environmental changes on these processes.

Contact 
Office Phone: (479) 575-3797
EmaiL: [email protected]

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​staff & POSTDOCS
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Janine Mistrick, PHD
[email protected]

Janine received her PhD from the University of Minnesota, where she used network models to investigate spatial behavior and hantavirus transmission dynamics in wild bank vole populations. She is interested in ecological drivers of infectious diseases in wildlife and the role of human-modified landscapes in shaping spillover potential. As a postdoc, she will be working in Kenya, studying viral transmission and shedding dynamics in molossid bats.​

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​graduate Students

JOSEPH OGOLA
DVM

Joseph is a veterinarian and PhD student enrolled at the University of Nairobi. He is co-supervised by Kris. Joseph works as a county vet in western Kenya, but his interest in emerging infectious diseases led him to pursue a PhD. Joseph is investigating viruses in bats and rodents from three sites in Kenya - the Taita Hills, Kibera urban settlement, and Busia county. 

katy wearing
[email protected]

Katy is interested in wildlife disease ecology, especially in the context of human, wildlife and environmental health. For her PhD, she is researching the effects of habitat quality and coinfection on Puumala hantavirus dynamics in bank voles. This research takes place in Finland. 

isabella deanglis
[email protected]

Isabella is interested in disease ecology, conservation biology, and wildlife management. Her PhD research involves studying how roosting behavior affects cellular immunity, stress physiology, ectoparasite abundance, and ultimately bloodborne pathogen prevalence in bats living in close association with humans in Kenya.  

EMMARIE GATES
[email protected]

Emmarie is interested in disease ecology, wildlife biology, and conservation biology. For her PhD, she is investigating zoonoses in bats on the African continent, with a particular interest in the zoonotic origins of ebolaviruses. 

Alois Mweu
[email protected]

 In his MSc, Alois studied comparative phylogeography of two specialist rodents living in forest fragments in Kenya. For his PhD, Alois is investigating zoonotic viruses (with a keen interest in Mpox) in wild rodents in East Africa. Alois is interested in ecology and conservation biology.

Sarah Munro, MPH
[email protected]

​Sarah received her MPH from Columbia University, where she studied the epidemiology of emerging infectious diseases. Prior to her PhD, she worked as a research scientist for a non-profit where she coordinated longitudinal biosurveillance for paramyxoviruses in fruit bats in South Africa and Bangladesh. She is specifically interested in understanding how ecology, human behavior, viral evolution, and spatial dynamics contribute to spillover of bat-borne viruses. For her PhD she is monitoring populations of urban bats in the Taita Hills of Kenya to understand how internal and external host factors influence transmission of alphacoronaviruses and ebolaviruses

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​​Undergraduate Students

Anna bolding
Lab Manager
and HONORS STUDENT

Raven Leggett
 Undergraduate Technician

​​Ben Griffey
​Honors Student

Kennedy Williams
Honors Student

emma gastineau
honors student

Chase Hixon
Honors Student

​​Lydia Rainwater
​Honors Student

ALUMNI

Hayden McGee (undergrad technician | 2024-2025)
Abigail Moore (undergrad/honors student | 2024-2025)
Laura Hansen (undergrad technician | 2024-2025)
Isabella Stark (undergrad/honors student | 2021-2024)
Annabelle Erisman (undergrad technician | 2023-2024)
Dr. Tamika Lunn (Post Doc | 2021 - 2023; now TT assistant professor University of Georgia)
Dr. Reilly Jackson (PhD | 2019 - 2023; now Research Program Manager with Arizona Game and Fish)
Sarah Chewning (Lab manager | 2019 - 2023)
Dr. Nathaniel Mull (PhD | 2019 - 2023; now TT assistant professor Shawnee State University)
Dr. Brent Newman( Post Doc | 2021 - 2023; now staff scientist CDC)
Abigail Stolt (undergrad technician | 2020-2023)
Amy Schexnayder (undergrad/honors student | 2021-2022)
Mary Claire Walker (undergrad/honors student | 2021-2022)
Alexia Hernandez (undergrad technician | 2021)
Aaron Norris (undergrad/honors student | 2020-2021)
C. Houston Lamb (undergrad/honors student | 2019-2020)
Sydney Darling (undergrad/honors student| 2019-2020)