ISAR WELCOMES OUR NEW ELECTED MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, JESSICA SPENGLER
Jessica Spengler and Leen Delang kindly volunteered to be nominated, and were then elected by the ISAR members, to serve as members of the Board of Directors of the society until 2023. It is our pleasure to introduce Jessica.
Jessica received her M.P.H. in infectious dis
eases in 2004 from the University of California, Berkeley, and then completed a California Epidemiologic Investigation Service (Cal-EIS) fellowship with the Vector-Borne Disease Section of the California Department of Health from 2004–2005. She received her Ph.D. (2011) and D.V.M. (2012) from the University of California, Davis. Her graduate research on innate immune evasion by hantaviruses was performed on-site with the Special Pathogens Program at the Public Health Agency of Canada in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and at the NIH Laboratory of Virology, Rocky Mountain Laboratories (Hamilton, Montana).
Since 2012, Jessica has worked with the Viral Special Pathogens Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. Currently, she leads a translational research program utilizing biosafety level 4 laboratory facilities to identify, prevent, ameliorate, and control high-hazard zoonotic viral pathogens, including Ebola, Marburg, Nipah, Lassa, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and Rift Valley fever viruses. This program investigates viral pathogenesis, develops animal models of disease, and conducts in vivo screens of therapeutic and vaccine candidates for high-containment, high-consequence viral hemorrhagic fevers. Jessica has over 60 peer-reviewed publications detailing her work in the field of virology and in therapeutic research. She is on the editorial board of Antiviral Research, an Associate Editor for Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, and a Review Editor for Frontiers in Virology.
Jessica has been actively involved with ISAR since 2016. She was a past recipient of the ISAR Chu Family Foundation Award for Women Scientists, has been on the ISAR Women in Science Committee since 2016, has assisted with annual ICAR abstract reviews since 2019, and has served as chair of the ISAR Social media workgroup since 2019. Jessica has been very active in social media promoting ISAR activities and providing timely information of interest to all those working on antiviral and vaccines research and development.
Please join us on welcoming Jessica to the Board of Directors and thanking her for her service to the society!
8 April 2021