新澳门六合彩内幕信息

What鈥檚 It Take to Do One Health Work?

Ten years ago, I shared an apartment with a friend studying veterinary medicine. Sure, she was busy, but we had time most days to sit together on the couch and eat ice cream while watching Jon Stewart on Comedy Central. Sometimes she鈥檇 take weekend trips to help a colleague out on a farm, and once she traveled to Thailand for a training exchange. We moved out of that home and on with our own lives, until recently when I sought her out to meet my newly adopted dog. At the clinic, my friend was anything but the lazing, laughing sort. She was calling the shots smoothly and sharply, and all the pets and their owners perked up at her voice. My friend had transformed into an everyday superhero. I was fascinated by her diversity of skills and degree of authority in, what seems to me, a wilderness of diagnoses and treatments. I realized that to work at the interface of human, animal and environmental health means you yourself must also be multi-faceted.

If you鈥檝e ever wondered what it鈥檚 like to grow into your job in a field like One Health that鈥檚 growing too, then let these stories from graduates of the lead your way to a clearer understanding and some inspiration.  

鈥淪urgery would come, a spay would be on the table, and my heart is racing. I鈥檓 thinking, Oh my gosh, I gotta cut this animal.鈥

What would you do with a knife鈥攁nd a life鈥攊n your hands? Deana Clifford set to the task. She practiced her clinical skills. Looking back, she wishes she had practiced more, to build as much confidence as possible. But at the time, as a student, she realized that some of her classmates were 鈥渃linically gifted鈥 and that she 鈥渨as not one of those鈥 students.

Instead of giving up or struggling towards a conventional clinical career, she acknowledged that her research interests were strong. 鈥淚 came into vet school with an idea that I wanted to do free ranging wildlife population work,鈥 she says. She now serves as a wildlife veterinarian for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. She still does animal surgeries, to implant transmitters for monitoring and other studies, and admits, 鈥淚鈥檓 a slow, thorough, scared-to-death surgeon every time I do it.鈥 Could that be because, as a colleague posits, these days Deana is doing surgeries on endangered species like the Amargosa vole?

Advice from the expert: 鈥淭riage your strengths.鈥

Two men sit on a river bank and measure a small fish
Researchers with the 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis Center for Watershed Sciences monitor conditions that affect farms, fish and floodplains where people live. (Gregory Urquiaga/新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis)

鈥淚 wanted to explore.鈥

Kirsten Gilardi, Professor and Co-director of the , years ago found herself considering leaving her tight cohort of classmates and delaying her degree, not to mention living on the other side of the world. 鈥淚 almost stepped away from four years in vet school in order to spend a few months in Antarctica working on seabirds.鈥

鈥淪omewhere in the back of my mind,鈥 she remembers, 鈥淚 knew this [was] the right decision if only because it [would] be so interesting and exciting to be there. If that was all I got out of it, that would be fine.鈥 But that wasn鈥檛 all she got out of it, not in the least. By openly discussing options with her degree program advisors at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis, she made the most of her trip. She worked on seabirds, sure, and also collected data, met new mentors, and enriched her veterinary expertise with a new perspective from down under.

Advice from the expert: 鈥淪eize opportunities.鈥

A bird covered in oil gets washed by two veterinary students
Environmental disasters, like the oil spill that affected this bird being treated by the 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis Oiled Wildlife Care Network, require veterinarians who can handle animals and collaborate with others to reestablish well being for all. (Joe Proudman/新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis)

鈥淚 will be doing surgery on horses pretty much every day for the rest of my life. Is that what I want?鈥

In other words, Christine Johnson, 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis Professor of Ecosystem Health, was asking herself, residency or research? She pursued the latter, a Ph.D., in veterinary school and gained a very specialized skill set.

But Johnson isn鈥檛 limited by her research track. She鈥檚 found ways to broaden her work and its impact. 鈥淟ike Kirsten,鈥 she says, 鈥淚 try to surround myself with people who don鈥檛 have a Ph.D. because I need their perspective and their skill set, which has to be different than mine鈥 because her expertise, while deep, is also narrow. And she鈥檚 into that; it drives her. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e thinking of a research degree,鈥 she quips, 鈥渓ove research. Don鈥檛 do it necessarily to get you a dream job.鈥

Advice from the expert: Seek others鈥 perspectives, and if you鈥檙e going to pursue research, 鈥渓ove research.鈥

Two young women in lab coats look closely at a test tube
Clinical and research skills complement each other in One Health work. Here, two students at the California National Primate Research Center use biological samples to answer pressing health questions. (Gregory Urquiaga/新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis)

This information is adapted from an in the Evotis newsletter published by the 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis .

Other Pathways to One Health Work

  • serves local communities and engages worldwide with clinics and knowledge exchange.
  • The Global Disease Biology Major for 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis undergraduates explores the science behind discoveries, causes, evolution, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases.

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Amy Whitcomb is an editor on the web team in Strategic Communications.

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