One Health Institute2025 One Health and Zoonoses Conference Speakers
John Pape
John Pape is a (Retired) Epidemiologist, formerly with the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment. He graduated from Colorado State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Health and began working for the health department as a field epidemiologist.
In 1984, Mr. Pape transferred to the Communicable Disease Epidemiology Program where he supervised the field epidemiologist staff and was responsible for zoonotic disease surveillance and control state-wide. He has authored/coauthored scientific journals articles on a variety of zoonotic diseases including bat rabies, tick-borne relapsing fever, feline plague and hantavirus and serves as a reviewer of submitted scientific journal articles for Emerging Infectious Diseases, American Journal of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene, Journal of Wildlife Disease and Journal of Infectious Wildlife Diseases.
Mr. Pape has conducted approximately 30 lectures and training sessions to professionals in health care, public health, veterinary medicine and animal related occupations annually. He regularly provided interviews to local and national print and electronic media on zoonotic and emerging infectious disease issues. In 2010, his alma mater honored him with the Distinguished Alumni award in the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
Cara Drehoff
Dr. Cara Drehoff is a veterinary epidemiologist who earned her doctorate in veterinary medicine from Virginia Tech and her master’s in public health from Yale University. She continued her training as an ORISE fellow with Veterinary Services at the US Department of Agriculture. Cara recently completed the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service fellowship where she was assigned to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
Taylor Foley
Taylor Clarkson Foley is the One Health Epidemiologist at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from Colorado State University and her Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Her public health career first began in research as an undergraduate student at Colorado State and she joined the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment in April 2024. Taylor is passionate about one health, infectious disease prevention, and protecting the health of Coloradans and their animals.
Melissa Orozco
Melissa is the Communicable Disease Epidemiology Program Manager at Arapahoe County Public Health. She earned both a Bachelor of Science in Public Health and a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from Indiana University Bloomington.
She has worked in infectious disease epidemiology in both state and local public health in Indiana and Colorado. She began her career in epidemiology at the Indiana Department of Health working in viral hepatitis and HIV/AIDS focusing on rural populations and correctional facility health.
After moving to Colorado, she had the opportunity to work at Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Safety in drug safety research. She started working for Tri-County Health Department in 2020 and later transitioned to the newly formed Arapahoe County Public Health in January 2023.
Nicole Kelp
Nicole Kelp has both a background in biomedical research as well as a current research program focused on science communication training of STEM students as well as health communication research regarding infectious diseases.
She holds appointments at Colorado State University, Colorado School of Public Health, and the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Between her teaching of biomedical sciences to medical students as well as her research and teaching in science communication, she approaches One Health issues from an interdisciplinary and inclusive perspective.
Karla Saavedra-Rodriguez
Dr. Saavedra-Rodriguez is an Assistant Professor and a member of the Center for Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases. Her research examines how mosquitoes respond to insecticides at both the individual (intrinsic) and population levels.
By integrating toxicology, genetics, and ‘omics’, she investigates the mechanisms of resistance across diverse mosquito species. These insights are then applied to field trials—utilizing both conventional and alternative control methods—to explore the evolution of resistance. Ultimately, her mission is to develop innovative tools and information to improve mosquito control and reduce the global burden of vector-borne diseases.
Chris Roundy
Dr. Chris Roundy is the state public health entomologist for Colorado with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. His work focuses on the surveillance, prevention, and control of disease vectors throughout the state, including mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, and kissing bugs.
Dr. Roundy also serves as a subject matter expert as needed for county public health officials, local mosquito control districts, and academic partners within Colorado as well as regionally through his role as an investigator in the CDC Rockies and High Plains Vector-borne Disease Training and Evaluation Center.
He has led an expansion of the state’s tick surveillance program, helped countries throughout Colorado grow their mosquito and West Nile virus surveillance programs, and assisted with the response to the emergence of an invasive mosquito species, Aedes aegypti, in western Colorado.
Dr. Roundy obtained his PhD in biomedical sciences from University of Texas Medical Branch studying vector-virus interaction between Zika virus and various mosquito species and obtained his Masters of Sciences in Public Health studying tropical medicine at Tulane University.
Mark Hernandez
Dr. Mark Hernandez attained all his degrees from University of California at Berkeley and joined the CU Boulder Engineering faculty in 1995. He is a registered professional civil engineer and an expert on the control of microbial air pollution.
He serves as an expert witness in the remediation field and holds 8 patents that form the basis of three environmental technology (start-up) companies here in the Front Range. He recently served on National Academy of Science Committees focusing on bioterrorism research and the transmission of human disease in urban environments.
Dan Frazen
Dan Frazen is the Agriculture Emergency Coordinator for the Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA), where he has worked since 2022. Dan is a Colorado Certified Emergency Manager (CO-CEM) and has been working in emergency management and disaster response since the 2013 Colorado Floods.
Allison Kohnen
Dr. Kohnen is the designated State Public Health Veterinarian for Colorado and a voting member of the National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians. Her work focuses on control and prevention of reportable zoonotic diseases within the state and providing expert consultation to veterinarians, academic partners, and local public health agencies.
Dr. Kohnen obtained her DVM from Colorado State University and Masters of Public Health in epidemiology from the Colorado School of Public Health. Previous to her current role, Dr. Kohnen served as a Veterinary Medical Officer for the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, where she was heavily involved in responding to detections of highly pathogenic avian influenza in poultry in numerous states.
Maggie Baldwin
Dr. Maggie Baldwin joined the Colorado Department of Agriculture in January 2017, serving in several roles before being appointed as the Colorado State Veterinarian in May 2021. In this position she manages CDA’s Animal Health Division through planning, directing and executing all programs, policies and cooperative agreements with other governmental agencies.
Dr. Baldwin focuses her efforts on the implementation of secure food supply plans and emergency response plans, enhanced animal disease traceability, education, and robust stakeholder engagement. Dr. Baldwin has a keen interest in one health and is the chair of the One Health Committee for the United States Animal Health Association (USAHA). She is also active on a variety of advisory boards including the TA&M Institute for Infectious Animal Disease (IIAD) and the Colorado Governor’s Expert Emergency Epidemic Response Committee (GEEERC).
Dr. Baldwin earned her DVM from the University of Minnesota’s College of Veterinary Medicine in St. Paul. She began her career in public service as a Supervisory Public Health Veterinarian with USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service and also served as a Veterinary Medical Officer with USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
Kalinda Gupta
Dr Kalinda Gupta is a consultant and independent researcher through OneHealth Analytics and Consulting (OAC) LLC. Her experience and education include areas like veterinary medicine and public health, and the skills she’s learned have allowed her to create an interdisciplinary approach to research.
By combining her expertise and experience in these two fields, she has been able to focus on how to better integrate humans and animals in disaster response planning, as well as examine the cost-effectiveness of planning for such events. She has connected to this space through the Front Range Veterinary Medical Reserve Corp and fully believes in their mission to include animals in the human-centered model of emergency planning and preparedness.
Sean McFarland
Sean McFarland is the TB Nurse Educator and Training Coordinator at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. With a strong background in emergency care, school nursing administration, and disaster response, Sean is passionate about empowering others through education and training.
