Graduate Students and Post Docs
Jessica Vandeleest, Ph.D
Post Doc, Social Networks and Health
Jessica's research focuses on infant development; in particular she is interested in using a multilevel approach to understand the how characteristics of social groups (e.g. social network structure) and specific social relationships (e.g. mother-infant relationship) interact with infant characteristics (e.g. temperament) to influence risk for negative health and behavioral outcomes.
Becki Brunelli
Doctoral Candidate, Animal Behavior
Becki focuses on enrichment for nursery-reared rhesus macaques, including feedback contingency surrogates, to help decrease distress and abnormal behaviors such as partner-clinging and self-biting, and increase well-being and species typical behaviors such as exploration and grooming. She is also interested in positive reinforcement training as an enrichment and husbandry tool in captive primates.
Allison Heagerty
Doctoral Candidate, Animal Behavior
Allison studies issues relating to rhesus social group stability using social network analysis. Specifically, she is researching how individual personality and alpha female behavior correlate with group structure and individuals' positions in their social network.
Kim VanderWaal
Doctoral Candidate, Animal Behavior
Kim combines a network approach with microbial genetics to assess pathways of pathogen transmission in African ungulates. One of her main goals is to determine the role of each species in multi-host pathogen transmission, and whether any species contributes disproportionately to pathogen dissemination. She is also interested in the relative importance of social versus spatial structure on the spread of pathogens through giraffe populations. Her dissertation work is being conducted at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya.
Nicole Sharpe
Doctoral Candidate, Animal Behavior
Nicole is a student in the Animal Behavior Graduate Group interested in primate social behavior and conservation, social network analysis, personality and temperament, and welfare. Her dissertation investigates how individual personalities contribute to group dynamics and stability in captive chimpanzees. She is working with groups of chimpanzees at two African sanctuaries, Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Kenya and Chimfunshi Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Zambia.
Hanie Elfenbien
Doctoral Candidate, Animal Behavior and School of Veterinary Medicine
Hanie's interests are at the intersection of Veterinary Medicine and Behavioral Management. She hopes to address welfare concerns in captive animals by combining the expertise of these two fields. As a graduate student in the Animal Behavior Graduate Group she is studying the epidemiology of non-pathogenic diarrhea, a syndrome with both physiological and behavioral risk factors.
Shannon Seil
Graduate Student, Animal Biology
Shannon is interested in assessment and management of captive primate behavior and well-being, focusing primarily on rhesus macaques. She is particularly interested in developing management strategies to improve welfare in captive rhesus social groups, through improving husbandry practices and manipulating group social dynamics/demographics.
Natalia Duque, DVM
Graduate Student, Animal Behavior
Natalia is interested in sleep dynamics and function, specifically its role in emotion and cognitive processes, its evolutionary significance, and how knowledge in the field can be applied to improve animal welfare in animals kept in captivity.
Tamar Boussina
Masters Student, Anthropology
Tamar is interested in the relationship between primate social networks and health, specifically how primate social relationships affect overall individual health, and the evolutionary significance of forming tight-knit social bonds
Alexander Whitaker
Masters Student, Animal Biology
Alex is a first year graduate student who is interested in studying group behaviors in animals using social network analysis.
