Danielle M. Tufts, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Infectious Diseases and Microbiology department in the School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Tufts is a vector-borne disease ecologist with interests in evolutionary genetics, pathogen transmission pathways, parasitology, ecological drivers of pathogen emergence, mathematical modeling, and host-vector-parasite interactions. Her goal is to enhance our understanding of these complex interactions by combining theory from disease ecology and genetics research with empirical approaches. She utilizes field collected and laboratory derived samples, mathematical and statistical models to connect these findings to patterns found in nature and analyzes these samples using molecular tools. She completed her PhD in 2013 at the University of Nebraska investigating phenotypic plasticity and genetic specialization of high altitude mammals. She studied vector-borne diseases as a postdoc and associate research scientist at Columbia University in New York City until 2020 when she joined the faculty at Pitt.