DEDE officers
Chair: Lauren Fuess, chair.dede@sicb.org; Chair-Elect: Cynthia Downs; Program Officer: Robin Warne, dpo.dede@sicb.org; Program Officer-Elect: Election occurring now; Secretary: Emily Le Sage, secretary.dede@sicb.org; Secretary-Elect: Election occurring now; Student/Postdoctoral Affairs Committee Representative: Molly Simonis molly.simonis@ou.edu
Annual Meeting of SICB 2025
SICB had a great turnout in Atlanta, GA January. With 12 symposia and over 20 workshops held across the four full days, there were many opportunities to learn and connect. We continued our annual tradition of hosting an oral presentation session dedicated to the DEDE Best Student Oral Presentation Competition and we had 7 incredible talks. In addition, 13 students competed in the DEDE Best Student Poster. A special thanks to those who volunteered to judge student presentations, your participation and enthusiasm for judging our students makes this a seamless process and we couldn’t do it without you!
Best Student Presentation Awards
The winner of the DEDE Best Student Oral Presentation was:
Sila Inanoglu
PhD Student
NSF Graduate Research Fellow
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of Connecticut
Talk Title: Does incubation temperature influence host defenses in different eastern bluebird populations?
Hosts have evolved and developed defenses, such as tolerance and resistance, against their parasites. Our study looked at not only how these defenses vary across three different populations of eastern bluebirds, but also how they are affected by an experimental temperature treatment during the development of the eggs.
The winner of the DEDE Best Student Poster was:
Jenna Palmisano
PhD Student
Biology Department
University of Central Florida
Talk Title: A New Tool for Surveillance: PCR Assay for Raillietiella orientalis Infection in Live Snakes
The focus of my dissertation is the physiologic and genomic impacts of disease on pygmy rattlesnake populations across Florida. I am focusing on pentastomiasis caused by the invasive, endoparasitic crustacean, Raillietiella orientalis and mycosis caused by two fungal pathogens that impact snakes in the southeastern United States.
To see all the awardees, click here.
BSP Runner-ups
Runner-ups for DEDE Best Student Oral Presentation:
Tied for 2nd place (in alphabetical order):
Caroline Cummings
PhD student
School of Biological Sciences
University of Oklahoma
Talk Title: Viral epidemic potential is not uniformly distributed across the bat phylogeny
I’m a second-year PhD student in Dr. Daniel Becker’s lab at the University of Oklahoma where I collect samples from wild bats, build machine learning models trained on immunological data, and conduct bioanalytical assays to help improve our understanding of how bat immunity mediates zoonotic risk across changing landscapes. My goal is optimize the predictive capacity and performance of statistical models to provide wildlife managers and public health officials with specific and accurate data to inform decision-making for protecting wildlife & human health and conserving biodiversity.
Lorraine Pérez
Talk title: Do Darwin’s finch mothers mediate the effects of urbanization on nest parasite pressure?
Runner-ups for DEDE Best Student Poster:
Chloe Butler
PhD Student
Department of Biology
Colorado State University
Poster Title: High-altitude adaptation alters the innate immune response in deer mice
My project focuses on high-altitude adaptation and its intersection with immunity. In this experiment, we introduced two populations of deer mice (separated by elevation) to a bacterial agent , LPS, for the purpose of understanding how innate immune physiology is under selection from pressures of high-altitude living.
Lochmiller Young Investigator Award
Congrats to the third annual Robert Lochmiller Young Investigator Awardees! Named in honor of this seminal figure in ecoimmunology, this award recognizes distinguished contributions to the fields of ecological immunology and disease ecology. The depth and breadth of the nominees’ contributions were outstanding, highlighting an extraordinarily bright future for our fields.
We are pleased to announce that the winners of the Lochmiller Award are:
Erin Sauer
Erin Sauer is an incoming Assistant Professor in the Dept of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources at Rutgers University (Fall 2025). She is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Sarah DuRant’s lab at the University of Arkansas. Her research focuses on wildlife disease ecology and eco-immunology, particularly in amphibian and avian systems. She is especially interested in how host behavior and physiology drive patterns in host disease severity, epidemic outcomes, and extinction risk in the context of global environmental change. To read more about her work visit: https://www.erinsauer.
Jenn Houtz
Dr. Jenn Houtz is an Assistant Professor of Biology and Neuroscience at Allegheny College. She received her B.S. in Animal Behavior from Millersville University and Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University. As an ecophysiologist, Dr. Houtz’s research focuses on how individual variation of physiological traits such as hormones and the gut microbiome influence a bird’s ability to respond to and recover from ecological stressors. Her research has culminated in 22 publications and multiple research grants and awards including a SICB DEDE Best Student Presentation Award. She is highly involved with SICB and the American Ornithological Society. She has mentored over 30 undergraduate students in research, is the faculty advisor of the Allegheny College Bird Club, and engages in science outreach in the local community using birds as a way to connect with the public.
Are you the next Lochmiller Young Investigator?
We will accept applications starting in October. The awardee will be announced at the 2026 SICB meeting in Portland, OR during the DEDE business meeting. Please encourage anyone who qualifies to apply and stay tuned for an e-mail with more information. Please e-mail dpo.dede@sicb.org for more information. https://sicb.org/divisions/division-of-ecoimmunology-disease-ecology/
Meet An Ecoimmunologist/Disease Ecologist
Once again this year, we had a great turnout for our “Meet an Ecoimmunologist/Disease Ecologist” event with both in-person and virtual meetups between student/post-docs and faculty working in Ecoimmunology and Disease Ecology. Thank you to all the student/post-doc mentees and our 10 mentors that participated this year!
Do you want to participate in our next Mentor-Mentee meet-up?
In August, you will receive an e-mail from Molly Simonis to sign up for this program if you are attending the Portland, Oregon 2026 meeting. We will be looking for both mentors and mentees so please encourage your students to sign up for this unique opportunity.
Looking ahead to SICB 2026 (Portland, OR)
As we look forward to the SICB 2026 meeting in Portland, OR (January 3-7, 2026), it is shaping up to be another outstanding meeting. We are excited to announce that DEDE will be co-sponsoring four symposia:
- Animal collective movement in complex environments
- Behavioral and environmental monitoring with open-source, low-cost tools.
- Needle in the haystack: Finding tools to study puncture and injection mechanisms in parasites
- Spotlighting the role of behavior in a rapidly changing world
To ensure that DEDE continues to grow and thrive, it is important that DEDE members continue to host ecoimmunology/disease-related symposia. We are now soliciting proposals for symposia for the SICB 2027 meeting in Pittsburgh, PA (January 3-7, 2027). If you have an idea, email our DEDE Program Officer at dpo.dede@sicb.org or SICB program officer at programofficer@sicb.org for more details or information. We also have sample grant proposals that we can share. We highly encourage senior graduate students and post-docs to submit proposals, as a symposium is an excellent way to network with researchers in your field, to highlight a research area you think is exciting, and to help shape future programming at SICB.
Thank you for your ongoing participation and support of DEDE events, and thanks again to all who volunteered to judge student presentations. We sincerely hope to see you all in person next January!
2025 Elections
Please vote here.
Voting on the Future DEDE Program-Officer
Name: Molly Simonis
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Auburn University
Education: BS University of Dayton (2009); MS Wright State University (2018); PhD Wright State University (2022)
Professional Experience: Assistant Professor, Auburn University (2025-present); Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Oklahoma (2022-2024)
SICB Activities: DEDE Member (2021-present); DEDE Student/Postdoc Representative (2024); SICB Student/Postdoctoral Affairs Committee (2024); SICB Symposium Co-organizer (2025); Integrative & Comparative Biology reviewer (2023, 2024)
Other Memberships: Ecological Society of America
Research Interests: I am a disease ecologist interested in wildlife health, and particularly within small mammals such as bats. My research focuses on how disturbances impact wildlife health, particularly when those disturbances come in the form of stressors that act on host physiology, immunity and ecology. To answer questions related to wildlife health, my lab combines field sampling, laboratory diagnostics, and empirical and theoretical quantitative methods. Ongoing projects in my lab include determining how multiple stressors impact bat cellular immunity, and eventually scaling those individual immune responses up to population-level infection dynamics.
Goals Statement: I would proudly serve as Program Officer for DEDE if elected. SICB has quickly become my societal home for ecoimmunology and disease ecology, and many other integrative aspects of my research. If elected, I would use my previous experience within DEDE and a SICB-wide committee to ensure we are providing symposia and sessions that are diverse in research perspectives and approaches, and actively inclusive of scientists from underrepresented groups within ecoimmunology and disease ecology. Additionally, I will work within DEDE to continue to help build opportunities for early career researchers, as outlined as top priorities within DEDE and SICB-wide strategic plans.
Voting on the Future DEDE Secretary
Name: Amberleigh Henschen
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Eastern Illinois University
Education: B.S. Creighton University (2011), Ph.D. University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee (2018)
Professional Experience: Postdoc, Smithsonian Institution (2022-2024); Postdoc, University of Memphis (2019-2022); Postdoc, Iowa State University (2018-2019)
SICB Activities: Member since 2015; Mentor for Broadening Participation Mentorship Program (2018-2020); Judge for DEDE Best Student Presentation and Best Student Poster Competition (2025); DEDE Mentor Meet-up (2025); Mentor for DEE Meeting of the Minds (2025)
Other Memberships: American Ornithological Society
Research Interests: In my lab, we focus on understanding the natural variation in response to disease in wild birds, and how this response is related to both sexual selection and non-immune physiology. I am particularly interested in how stress affects the ability of birds to respond to immune challenges and how both of those factors affect the production of colorful plumage. I am also interested in how populations adapt to novel pathogens and have recently been focused on understanding the mechanisms and evolution of disease tolerance.
Goals Statement: I would be very excited and honored to serve as the SICB DEDE Secretary. I began attending SICB annual meetings in 2015 as a graduate student and have always been grateful for the support given to students and early career researchers. As a professor at a PUI, I see how important effective communication is for connecting students with opportunities that help them succeed. My goal as secretary would be to communicate all of the excellent opportunities and events happening through the DEDE so our members can take full advantage of them. In addition, I would like to share the ideas and accomplishments of our members with both the broader SICB community and with the public.
Name: Jenn Houtz
Current Position: Assistant Professor of Biology at Allegheny College
Education: Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology – Cornell University; B.S. in Animal Behavior – Millersville University
Professional Experience: Assistant Professor, Departments of Biology and Neuroscience, Allegheny College (2023-Present)
SICB Activities: I have attended SICB since my first year of graduate school at the 2019 Tampa meeting. In 2021, I won the Best Student Talk Award for the Division of Ecoimmunology and Disease Ecology (DEDE). I served as the DEDE Student-Postdoc Representative for 2 years (2021-2023). In 2025, I was awarded the DEDE Robert Lochmiller Early Professional Award for research contributions to the field of ecoimmunology and disease ecology. I serve on the SICB Primarily Undergraduate Institution (PUI) Action Group where we organize mentoring villages for those currently at or interested in working at PUIs.
Other Memberships: I am a co-chair for the Early Professionals Committee for the American Ornithological Society (AOS). I serve on the AOS Meeting Coordination Committee and Professional Ethics Committee.
Research Interests: My general research interests include physiological ecology, animal behavior, microbial ecology, and ornithology. My research focuses on how individual variation of physiological traits influences an organism’s ability to respond to and recover from ecological stressors. My work on the avian microbiota-gut-brain axis explores how the gut microbiome interacts with the hormonal stress response to affect organismal function and fitness in wild birds.
Goals Statement: My involvement with DEDE as a graduate student and now as a faculty member is a large part of why I consider SICB to be my home scientific society. My goal as the DEDE Secretary would be to maintain effective and collaborative communication between DEDE leadership and membership through detailed newsletters, social media, email, and website updates. As the DEDE Student-Postdoc Rep, I maintained the Twitter page and organized the DEDE “Meet an Ecoimmunologist or Disease Ecologist” mentoring program. I served as the secretary and then president of Cornell’s First Generation and Low Income Graduate Student Organization for 3 years. As a first-generation college student, I experienced how supportive mentors can build the self-confidence necessary to succeed in science. In addition to effective communication to DEDE membership, another goal as Secretary would be to increase our division’s connection to undergraduate and graduate SICB members by expanding our presence on social media and creating mentoring opportunities outside of the annual conference.