Brianna Willis, a Texas A&M University graduate and current intern at Kansas State University’s (K-State) National Agricultural Biosecurity Center (NABC), was recently selected by her alma mater to participate as one of six interns in its Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases (IIAD) summer internship program.
Currently, Willis is assisting NABC develop the National Livestock Readiness Program website, which aims to provide both agriculture professionals and first responders with an information source for animal disease response planning and information exchange.
The site will also include places for state to exchange information about best practices regarding disaster preparedness plans.
“I love working in extremely diverse environments and coming together to reach a common goal for the betterment of a population, whether it is animal or human,” Willis said. “Understanding the different layers of the field from policy to One Health and beyond is very important, and being multidimensional is critical.”
As part of her internship, Willis will spend one week at the Transboundary Animal Disease Summer Program at K-State’s Biosecurity Research Institute where she will learn about high consequence transboundary animal diseases and containment research.
The program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Center of Excellence for Emerging and Zoonotic Animal Diseases.