Research interests
Background:
Jennifer Calder DVM, PhD is currently Director Infection Control Terence Cardinal Cooke
Health Care Center in New York City. Dr. Calder started her career as a veterinary officer
with the Government of Jamaica where among other things she was involved in the Food and
Agriculture Organization-sanctioned bovine tuberculosis and brucellosis eradication program.
It was while working in this setting that she developed a love for zoonotic diseases and
public health. She later joined the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals' Animal Health Care Clinic's staff in Brooklyn for two years before attending
graduate school.
After graduate school, she was the Assistant State Epidemiologist and State Public Health
Veterinarian with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE). As Assistant
State Epidemiologist, among other things she supervised numerous outbreak investigations,
conducted immunization assessments in 24-month old children, analyzed the HIV epidemiology
profile for the state, looked at missed opportunities for TB prophylaxis in the State, and
provided support to the various bureaus in the department. As the State Public Health
Veterinarian she responded to all issues related zoonotic diseases, and wrote and responded
to statutes and regulations related to these issues.
After leaving the KDHE, she was the Assistant Director of the Parasitic Disease Surveillance
Unit with the New York City Department of Health, Communicable Disease Program where she
developed a nursing-home-based surveillance system as an early warning system to detect
gastrointestinal illness in the city that were related to waterborne outbreaks.
Dr. Calder was a member of the faculty of the University of Kansas, College of Medicine,
Department of Preventive, Medicine, Kansas City, Kansas. She has been on faculty at The
Joseph L Mailman School of Public Health Columbia University since 1999 and currently
teaches part of the Emerging Infectious Diseases course.
