Lab Alumni

PhD Candidate Alumni

Dr. Jenessa Winston: Clinical investigator and PhD candidate 2015-2019

Dr. Jenessa Winston DVM, PhD, DACVIM is currently an Associate Professor with Tenure in Small Animal Internal Medicine at The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine. Her research interests include studying the gut microbiome, metabolome, fecal microbiota transplantation, bile acid metabolism, and infectious diseases.

Dr. Amber Reed: PhD candidate 2016-2021

Dr. Amber Reed is currently a Senior Microbiologist at the Revlon manufacturing plant located in Oxford, NC. She is responsible for the microbiology lab as well as ensuring that the facility as a whole is meeting appropriate cleanliness standards.

Dr. Sam McMillan: PhD candidate 2019-2024

Dr. Sam McMillan is a postdoctoral fellow in Jeff Dangl and Corbin Jones’ lab at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is studying plant-microbe interactions using spatial transcriptomics.

Postdoctoral Alumni

Dr. Colleen Pike: Postdoctoral fellow 2018-2022

Dr. Colleen Pike is a Senior Program Director of Regulator Science at the Humane World for Animals.

Dr. Matthew Foley: Postdoctoral fellow 2018-2022

Dr. Matthew Foley is the Manager of Preclinical Development & Director of Academic Collaborations at Ancilia Biosciences, and a Research Scholar at North Carolina State University in the Barrangou lab.

Dr. Joshua Fletcher: Postdoctoral fellow 2016-2020

Dr. Joshua Fletcher is currently an Assistant Professor at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine. He studies how nutrient acquisition/utilization and microbial interactions influence bacterial physiology in the context of health and disease.

Research Associate Alumni

  • Dr. Stephanie Thomas: Research associate 2023-2025
  • Dr. Rajani Thanissery: Research associate 2015-2021
  • Alissa Rivera: Animal research technician 2016-2021

Undergraduate Researcher Alumni

  • Minh Anh (Mimi) Nguyen: Undergraduate researcher 2024-2025
  • Nish Mathur: Undergraduate researcher 2023-2024
  • Sean Brown: Undergraduate researcher 2023-2024
  • KC Cooper: Undergraduate researcher 2022-2024
  • Sana Khan: Undergraduate researcher 2021-2022
  • Gracie Vestal: Undergraduate researcher 2019-2020
  • Garrison Allen: Undergraduate researcher 2018-2020
  • Ruth Parsons: Undergraduate researcher 2017-2020
  • Ivy Gold: Undergraduate researcher 2019 (summer)
  • Tommy Burdette: Veterinary scholar’s program 2018 (summer)
  • Elissa Foss: Undergraduate researcher 2016-2017
  • Kevin Chang: Veterinary scholar’s program 2016 (summer)
  • Allyson Patterson: Undergraduate researcher 2016 (spring)