Tierra Smiley Evans, DVM, PhD

Tierra Smiley Evans, DVM, PhD, is research faculty at the One Health Institute, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. Her work focuses on the impacts of global environmental change on human and animal health with an emphasis on the connection between biodiversity loss, climate change, and zoonotic disease emergence. Currently, Dr. Smiley Evans is Principal Investigator on an NIH-funded project investigating the epidemiology of zoonotic viruses in forest communities in rural Myanmar, where she is studying the environmental contributions to viral sharing among humans and wildlife in elephant logging communities. She is also co-Principal Investigator on a new NIH-funded research center, the Epicenter for Emerging Infectious Disease Intelligence (EEIDI), which aims to help prevent the spread of emerging diseases by advancing our understanding of how environmental change drives zoonotic disease emergence and to establish research hubs in the Congo basin and Amazon forest perimeters. Dr. Smiley Evans is active in endangered species conservation, including population health studies of mountain gorillas and Asian elephants. She is also working to advance conservation of one of the world’s newest discovered primate species, the Skywalker gibbon, and advising on Asian elephant health in Myanmar

OHI affiliation:

EpiCenter for Disease Dynamics
Gorilla Doctors

Selected publications:

• Bushmeat hunting and trade in Myanmar’s central teak forests: Threats to biodiversity and human livelihoods
  Synergistic China–US Ecological Research is Essential for Global Emerging Infectious Disease Preparedness
  Detection of viruses using discarded plants from wild mountain gorillas and golden monkeys

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