Students from PCOM South Georgia and area physician residency programs along with practicing physicians will share their latest research projects during PCOM South Georgia’s annual Research Day on Wednesday, May 8.

The event will include poster presentations, podium talks and a presentation by keynote speaker Jennifer McQuiston, DVM.

Dr. McQuiston, a veterinarian, is a diplomate with the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine and a retired captain in the U.S. Public Health Service. This uniformed branch of service is committed to protecting the nation’s public health. Its officers serve in various agencies across government as physicians, nurses, dentists, veterinarians, scientists, engineers and other professionals.

Since 2015, McQuiston has served as the deputy director in the Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). According to the CDC website, the DHCPP “improves public health and safety nationally and globally through investigating, monitoring, and controlling sickness, disability, and death caused by highly lethal viral, bacterial, prion and related infections and diseases of unknown origin.” As deputy director, her responsibilities include leading a division that investigates and responds to infectious disease threats that could have catastrophic consequences on the public’s health and safety, such as Ebola, Marburg, smallpox, anthrax, rabies, prions and others.

With a career at the CDC spanning more than 25 years, McQuiston began at the CDC as an epidemic intelligence service (EIS) officer before becoming an epidemiologist and communications specialist specializing in zoonotic diseases.

McQuiston often serves in leadership roles for CDC emergency responses, including deploying to Sierra Leone as part of the 2014 West Africa response, serving at deputy incident manager in 2015 for the CDC’s zika response, serving as principal deputy incident manager in 2020 during the CDC’s COVID response, and leading as incident manager in 2022 during the CDC’s response to the 2022 global mpox outbreak.

Research Day activities begin at noon on May 8 in classroom A on the PCOM South Georgia campus. For more information, contact Jennifer H. Shaw, PhD, chair of the department of biomedical sciences, at [email protected].