Meet Kathleen

Hello! My name is Kathleen Rafferty and I will be working on the gopher tortoise health assessment project with Dr. Annie Page-Karjian. I graduated from the University of Florida in 2017 (Go Gators!) where I majored in Zoology and minored in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation. I then moved up north to the cold to pursue a DVM from the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine. I just completed my second year of vet school, and I am excited to be back in Florida for the summer at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute!

At the University of Illinois, I am very involved with wildlife medicine. As a volunteer and the Conservation Chair at my school's Wildlife Medical Clinic, I am part of a team of students that spends many hours a week triaging and caring for a variety of injured wildlife species. I have also spent the beginning of both of my summers volunteering for the Epidemiology Lab's "Turtle Team", a group of veterinarians, researchers, and students that performs health assessments on Eastern Box Turtle populations throughout the state of Illinois. This summer I look forward to expanding my clinical skills through conducting health assessments as well as developing a greater skill set in research working with gopher tortoises!

 

Kathleen holding an Eastern Box Turtle studied through the Wildlife Epidemiology Lab's "Turtle Team" at the University of Illinois