Jacey Cerda, a fourth-year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine student, was awarded a Fulbright postdoctoral fellowship to complete fieldwork in Australia. Her research focuses on identifying what resources are needed to build and engage emergency biodiversity support teams. This project builds upon her initial research that outlined opportunities for a veterinarian’s role in wildlife conservation.

Cerda will be based at Federation University in Churchill Australia from February to May 2025. She’s interested in understanding how and why experts spanning several disciplinary fields collaborated to protect biodiversity in the face of extreme fires during Australia’s Black Summer fires of 2019-2020.

She’ll combine the findings of this project with additional research in the U.S., under the mentorship of Dr. Tracy Webb, to develop frameworks for conceptualizing, funding, and constructing well-funded and trained emergency biodiversity support teams capable of being deployed to protect, extract, and triage wildlife during fires and other natural disasters in the U.S. “[Australia’s] conservation actions during and after the Black Summer fires provide an exemplary model of creating teams focused on emergency biodiversity support.”

After graduation, Cerda will be busy, working on an internship at Wheat Ridge Animal Hospital in addition to traveling to Australia for her fieldwork. “I chose this project because I am passionate about engaging veterinary professionals in biodiversity conservation action. With their diverse experiences and training, veterinarians can play a tremendous role in wildlife conservation.”