Alyssa is a Master's student interested in studying diseases wildlife and the implications of conservation and urbanization on parasite and animal behavior, and has enjoyed working with a wide array of animals including rodents, birds, and raccoons. Alyssa holds a BA in Organismal Biology and Politics from Pitzer College, California, where they wrote their senior thesis on the dynamics of nematode coinfections within hosts. After graduating, Alyssa completed a Fulbright grant in Poland researching the prevalence and genetic diversity of blood-borne diseases in voles and wolves. Alyssa aims to continue studying parasite-host relationships and coinfection at Columbia, and they are particularly interested in focusing on zoonotic diseases in animal populations that live in proximity to humans.
