Having been raised in the swamps of southeast Georgia, Dawn developed her appreciation of and fascination with nature at an early age. Her enthusiasm pointed her towards a Bachelors degree in Biology from Agnes Scott College. During her time at Agnes, she worked as a student researcher in the Viral and Rickettisal Zoonoses Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and encountered her first parasites of interest-- ticks. Dawn's knowledge of parasitology and infectious diseases grew while obtaining her Masters in Biology from Georgia Southern University, where her dissertation focused on the tick-borne zoonotic disease Anaplasmosis.
Dawn has since moved to Athens to pursue a PhD in the Department of Infectious Diseases within the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Georgia. She is a graduate assistant through the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study in Athens and enjoys the benefit of experiencing, first-hand, the diagnosis and management of diseases afflicting wildlife. She is currently researching the parasite causing Chagas disease, Trypanosoma cruzi, under the advisement of Dr. Michael J. Yabsley.
