PhD students

Erin Brosnan
Email: Erin.Brosnan@ucf.edu

Erin received a B.S in Marine Science-Biology from the University of Tampa where she explored the metabolic effects of the amphibian disease chytridiomycosis on the invasive Cuban Treefrog (Osteopilus septentrionalis). Following graduation Erin spent four years at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory working in cancer biology before returning to study amphibian disease ecology once again. Erin’s other primary research interests include conservation biology, genetics and ecological physiology. In her Ph.D Erin plans on studying the disease dynamics of a novel protist in the Perkinsea phylum and the iridovirus Ranavirus sp. on native and invasive amphibian hosts.

Jenna Palmisano
Email: Jenna.Palmisano@ucf.edu

Jenna received her BS from Stetson University where she was involved in ecological research and environmental activism. For four years now, she has assisted a cohort of PhDs with studies of snake fungal disease in dusky pygmy rattlesnake populations. Jenna also worked at Medtoxin Venom Laboratory for several years to expand her knowledge of herpetofauna and venomous snake handling. Before returning to disease ecology and the southeast, Jenna traveled to the southwest to study the urban ecology of tiger rattlesnakes and Gila monsters in AZ and to detect Gila monster presence in southwestern NM. Now back in FL, her research focuses on the invasive pentastome parasite, Raillietiella orientalis, which primarily exploits snakes as definitive hosts. In the Savage Lab, Jenna will focus on assessing the pressures of R. orientalis on native herpetofauna by characterizing the disease landscape of R. orientalis and using molecular techniques to understand how the hosts respond to pentastomiasis (the disease caused by R. orientalis).

Veronica L. Urgiles

@verolurgiles

Vero received her B.Sc. in Biology at the Universidad del Azuay in Ecuador. Her undergraduate research focused on exploring the effects of elevation and habitat characteristics on the structure and composition of amphibian communities in the high Ecuadorean Andes. After graduation, she spent three years working as a researcher in the Zoology Museum of the Universidad del Azuay, mainly involved in systematics and ecology of terrestrial frogs. In 2017, she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to start her graduate studies exploring the ecological, morphological and phylogenetic factors influencing diversification processes of the Pristimantis orestes group (small cryptic frogs) in the tropical Andes. She is now working on her PhD more broadly studying the evolutionary drivers of skin morphology in frogs.

Master’s Students

Isabella Davis

A smiling person in a green shirt and waders holds a large turtle shell. There are bins and greenery in the background.

Isabella received her BS in Biology at Arkansas State University. Her undergraduate research focused on functional immune responses in three aquatic turtle species. Following graduation, Isabella spent the summer interning in the research department at the Memphis Zoo. There she worked with native frog species and Dusky gopher frogs (Lithobates sevous). During her Masters, Isabella plans on studying disease prevalence in amphibian populations in the Everglades.