Abstract:
I led a project with the Woodland Park Zoo’s Senior Conservation Scientist, Dr. Lisa Dabek, and Director of the UW Center for One Health Research, Dr. Peter Rabinowitz. This project’s goal was to develop a complex One Health Strategic plan for the Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program within the Yopno-Uruwa-Som Landscape (YUS). This work included the development of intervention goals, detailed strategies, a work plan timeline, and logic model for proposed intervention to improve One Health strategies in YUS Papua New Guinea. This project represented an intervention on a multi-level scale that helped to prioritize indigenous knowledge within its implementation, and I was so happy to be a part of it. The local YUS collaborators I spoke with, though unfortunately limited to Zoom calls, where such incredible people and inspired me in my own work. I hope to continue collaborating with communities such as this one into the future as I expand upon my international work.