Sharon is the Director of the Saint Louis Zoo Institute for Conservation Medicine (ICM), for which she serves as the first Director since its launch in September 2011. The ICM takes a holistic approach to wildlife conservation, public health and sustainable ecosystems. In addition to global health and conservation projects, Dr. Deem is training the next generation of One Health practitioners. Her first role with the Saint Louis Zoo was as the veterinary epidemiologist based in the Galápagos Islands as part of the Saint Louis Zoo WildCare Institute Center for Avian Health in the Galápagos Islands.

In 2018 and 2020, she delivered TEDx talks on One Health. She has published extensively on conservation and health topics with over 150 journal articles and book chapters. Dr. Deem also is the first author of the 2019 textbook “Introduction to One Health: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Planetary Health,” which has been used in the Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) One Health semester course.

Prior to the Saint Louis Zoo, Dr. Deem worked for the Wildlife Conservation Society and Smithsonian National Zoo with much of that time living and working in African and South American countries. Dr. Deem holds a DVM from the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, a Ph.D. in veterinary sciences (epidemiology) from the University of Florida and after a three-year residency in zoo and wildlife medicine became board-certified in the American College of Zoological Medicine (ACZM). She served in an executive role for ACZM over eight years.

Dr. Deem was president of the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians (Nov. 1, 2023-Oct. 31, 2024).

Sharon has a special fondness for elephants, sea turtles and jaguars.

Education

Diplomate - American College of Zoological Medicine following Residency in Wildlife and Zoological Medicine, University of Florida
Ph.D. - Veterinary Sciences (Epidemiology), University of Florida
DVM - Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine
B.S. - Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Areas of Expertise

Wildlife Health
Conservation Medicine
One Health
Clinical Zoological Medicine
Epidemiology

Jamie is a biologist and technician for the Institute for Conservation Medicine. Her interests are in wildlife health and conservation medicine. She is particularly passionate about turtles. Jamie is the lab and field technician for Institute for Conservation Medicine programs working in Galapagos, Cuba and the U.S. Her main research focuses are the St. Louis Box Turtle Project, studying the health and movement patterns of box turtles in Missouri, and more recently studying aquatic turtle health at the Zoo’s WildCare Park. She is the director of the Cuban Crocodile Conservation Program with the Saint Louis Zoo WildCare Institute, developing a One Health program in Cuba focused on the Zapata Swamp ecosystem.

Before joining the Institute for Conservation Medicine, Jamie was a keeper at the Zoo in both the Animal Health and Antelope Departments before returning to school to complete her M.S. in Ecology, Evolution & Systematics at UMSL. Her thesis work looked at exposure to Plasmodium spp., the parasite that causes malaria in Galapagos penguins. More specifically, antibody seroprevalence in penguins for the malarial parasite across islands in the Galapagos. Jamie has been with the Zoo for 15 years and with the Institute for Conservation Medicine since February 2013. The Institute for Conservation Medicine team focuses their work on wildlife health issues as they fit into a conservation medicine/One Health framework, including the connections between wildlife conservation and human/ecosystem health.

Education

M.S. – Ecology, Evolution & Systematics, University of Missouri – St. Louis
B.S. - Biology, Zoology emphasis, San Francisco State University

Areas of Expertise

Conservation Medicine & One Health
Field and lab techniques
Hematology
Chelonians

Kathleen joined the Institute for Conservation Medicine (ICM) in October 2015 and has a background in conservation science, evolution and molecular biology. As Research Associate, she applies her expertise in these fields to conservation medicine research and assists in establishing One Health relationships between the Zoo and local research institutions. Prior to working at the Zoo, Kathleen was a research scientist and lab manager at both the University of California-San Francisco and Virginia Tech, studying the mechanisms regulating infection by herpes simplex virus. She also served two terms of national service with AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps. Her conservation medicine/One Health experience began with an internship at EcoHealth Alliance, where she worked on both fruit bat conservation and malaria vector ecology. Her experiences also extend to studies on superb starlings, leeches and other oligochaetes, and shellfish diseases. At the ICM, she uses molecular tools to tackle conservation issues, and as a proponent of capacity building strives to teach others the utility of such powerful tools in conservation work.

Education

M.A. – Conservation Biology, Columbia University
M.S. – Biology, University of Michigan
B.A. – Biology, Johns Hopkins University

Areas of Expertise

Evolution and behavioral ecology
Molecular biology
Phylogenetics and systematics
Field and lab methods

Lilian is a Brazilian veterinarian and professor of Clinical and Wildlife Management at the Federal University of Piaui State in Brazil and also a Ph.D. student in virology at the Evandro Chagas Institute. She completed her Master thesis in Zoology at Santa Cruz State University. Since 2005, Lilian has been a research collaborator of the Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Belgium, and for four years she was on the board of the Brazilian Association of Wildlife Veterinarians (ABRAVAS). In 2015, as part of her doctoral studies, Lilian worked at the Saint Louis Zoo Institute for Conservation Medicine. Lilian's academic interests are in the fields of conservation medicine, public health and wildlife veterinary medicine. Her ongoing research focuses on studying outbreaks of arbovirus infections in wildlife and human populations in and around protected natural areas of north-eastern Brazil.

Education

Ph.D. – Evandro Chagas Institute, Para Brazil
DVM – Paulista State University, Sao Paulo, Brazil
M.S. – State University of Santa Cruz, Bahia, Brazil

Area of Expertise

Conservation Medicine

Kaitlin is a wildlife veterinarian who joined the ICM in September 2025. She earned her DVM from the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine in 2020 and began her career as a small animal clinician before transitioning to wildlife research. Kaitlin has a passion for conservation and ecosystem health, and completed a PhD with the Wildlife Epidemiology Lab (WEL) at the University of Illinois. Her research focused on the health of the state-endangered Blanding’s turtle, investigating drivers of health in free-living individuals and identifying treatment strategies for an infectious disease outbreak in a head-start population.

Education

PhD – Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology, University of Illinois Wildlife Epidemiology Lab

DVM – University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine

BS – University of Denver

Areas of Expertise

Epidemiology

Conservation Medicine

Chelonians

As a native of St. Louis, Kate has cherished memories of childhood of trips to the Zoo and now enjoys visiting with her own children. After completing her B.A. in Psychology & Sociology from Maryville University, Kate gained experience through various social work and office management positions. She has worked in social services agencies, the pharmaceutical industry, and academia. Her focus is on providing support and to connect people with the tools and resources they need to succeed.

In March 2024, Kate became the Administrative Assistant for the Institute of Conservation Medicine. She works behind the scenes on permits, communications, funding, and purchasing to help the ICM team continue their important wildlife health and conservation work. She especially enjoys interacting with ICM interns and volunteers. Her favorite projects are the ICM newsletters and One Health outreach programs.

Anyone interested in supporting the ICM or learning more about their projects can reach out to Kate at kburleson@stlzoo.org.