Pennsylvania One Health Consortium
2026 Annual Meeting
One Health in Action: From Data to Decisions
June 21–23, 2026 | Pittsburgh, PA
Funded by the University of Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture
Day 1, Sunday, June 21
Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens
One Schenley Park | Pittsburgh, PA 15213
5:30–7:00 PM Reception
Day 2, Monday, June 22
University of Pittsburgh – Alumni Hall
4227 Fifth Ave | Pittsburgh, PA 15260
7:30–8:00 AM Breakfast & Setup (posters & sponsors)
OPENING SESSION
8:15–8:45 AM Opening Remarks Dean Maureen Lichtveld / Dr. Suresh Kuchipudi
8:45–9:15 AM Keynote: "From Data to Decisions Through the Lens of One Health"
Harris Pastides, PhD, MPH
Distinguished President Emeritus and Distinguished Professor Emeritus
PRESENTATIONS
Panel 1 — Predictive Modeling & AI
9:15–9:25 AM
Moderator/Speaker
"From Data to Action: The Role of AI in One Health"
Suresh Kuchipudi, PhD, MVSc, DipACVM, MBA
Professor and Chair, Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Suresh Kuchipudi is the Professor and Chair of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, USA. Prior to joining the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Kuchipudi held various academic and clinical positions. He served as the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair Professor in Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Penn State Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences and director of Penn State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. He was previously faculty at the University of Nottingham in the UK. Dr. Kuchipudi is a veterinary clinician with a Ph.D. in virology from the University of Glasgow, UK, an MBA from Penn State Smeal College of Business, and a diplomate in virology and immunology from the American College of Veterinary Microbiologists (ACVM). His primary research focuses on emerging and zoonotic viruses; his multidisciplinary research aims to understand virus spillover and adaptation, developing innovative diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics. He promotes a transdisciplinary approach through 'One Health' initiatives, fostering multisector partnerships and building impactful international collaborations.
9:25–9:32 AM
"Pitt’s unique AI innovations in Auto-ML and Agentic AI: Reshaping the Future of Medical Care, Education and Research"
Hooman Rashidi, MD, MS, FCAP
Associate Dean of AI in Medicine; Professor & Endowed Chair of Lombardi-Shinozuka Experimental Pathology Research, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; Executive Vice Chair of Computational Pathology & Informatics, UPMC; Executive Director, CPACE
Dr. Rashidi is the Associate Dean of AI in Medicine, Professor and Endowed Chair of Lombardi-Shinozuka Experimental Pathology Research, Executive Director of the Computational Pathology & AI Center of Excellence (CPACE), and Executive Vice Chair of the Computational Pathology & Informatics Division at UPMC. He focuses on advancing AI- and ML-driven solutions across clinical care, research, and education, and is the inventor and developer of numerous AI products being licensed or in the process of licensing by multiple organizations, including MILO, STNG, Pitt-GPT-plus, WSI-Genie, Auto-Pix-AI, Script-IQ, and Edit-Tron, among others. He also developed Cleveland Clinic’s AI course and Pitt’s newest no-code interactive AI program, Pitt-AI-cademy. Internationally recognized for his contributions, he has held senior editorial roles in leading pathology and informatics journals, delivered invited lectures worldwide, authored influential AI original manuscripts and review series, and served in key national leadership and committee roles shaping the future of AI and digital medicine.
9:32–9:39 AM
"Kidney Health: Leveraging AI to Bridge Risk and Prevention"
Sandra Kane-Gill, PharmD, MSc, FCCM, FCCP
Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs and Program Innovation, School of Pharmacy; Professor, Department of Pharmacy and Therapeutics; Professor, Department of Critical Care Medicine, Biomedical Informatics, University of Pittsburgh
andra L. Kane-Gill, PharmD, MSc, FCCP, FCCM, is a Tenured Professor of Pharmacy and Therapeutics and Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs and Programmatic Innovation at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy. She has secondary appointments in the School of Medicine, Clinical Translational Science Institute, Department of Critical Care Medicine, and Department of Biomedical Informatics. She also serves as faculty in the program for Critical Care Nephrology in the Department of Critical Care Medicine. In addition to her academic appointments, Dr. Kane-Gill is a critical care medication safety pharmacist in the Department of Pharmacy at UPMC.
Her research focuses on effective approaches for the detection, prevention, and management of medication errors and adverse drug events with emphasis on drug associated acute kidney injury. Dr. Kane-Gill is the principal investigator for federally funded research from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). Her work has been presented at over 200 professional national and international meetings and she has published over 300 articles and book chapters related to critical care and patient safety. Dr. Kane-Gill was recognized in the top 1% of scholars in the world writing about medication errors in 2021. She was the president of the Society of Critical Care Medicine in 2022. Dr. Kane-Gill serves on the Board of Regents for the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and the Critical Care Specialty Board for the American Board of Internal Medicine.
9:39–9:46 AM
"Between the Prediction and the Prevention, Falls the Shadow"
Bhramar Mukherjee, PhD
Senior Associate Dean for Public Health Data Science and Data Equity, Anna MR Lauder Professor of Biostatistics, Professor of Epidemiology (Chronic Disease), Professor of Statistics and Data Science (Secondary), Yale School of Public Health
Professor Bhramar Mukherjee is the Anna M.R. Lauder Professor of Biostatistics and Professor of Chronic Disease Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health. Professor Mukherjee serves as the inaugural Senior Associate Dean of Public Health Data Science and Data Equity at the school. She holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Statistics and Data Science at Yale University. Across the pond, Dr. Mukherjee is appointed as an Overseas Fellow at Churchill College, University of Cambridge, and a Visiting Faculty at Ashoka University, India. Prior to joining Yale University in 2024, Dr. Mukherjee built a distinguished career at the University of Michigan where she was appointed as John D. Kalbfleisch Distinguished University Professor of Biostatistics and the first woman Chair of the Department of Biostatistics (2018-2024). She is known for her contribution to statistical methods for integration of genetic, environmental, and disease data from large healthcare databases and for her work on COVID-19 in India. She is the winner of many awards, including the 2023 Karl Peace award from the ASA for betterment of society through statistics, and the 2024 Marvin Zelen Leadership in Statistical science award from Harvard Biostatistics. She is a fellow of the ASA, IMS, AAAS, and an elected member of the US National Academy of Medicine. She has written more than 430 articles and supervised 22 PhD and 5 post-doctoral fellows. She is the founding director of several flagship undergraduate summer programs on big data. She is the 2026 President of ENAR, an eminent professional society for biostatisticians.
9:46–10:00 AM Discussion & Q&A
Moderator to ask one overarching question to start the Q&A
10:00–10:30 AM Morning Break (Poster Viewing and Judging)
Panel 2 — Human Health
10:30–10:40 AM
Moderator/Speaker
"Of People and Places: Where You Live Determines One’s Health"
Dean Maureen Lichtveld, MD, MPH
Dean, Jonas Salk Professor in Population Health and Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Maureen Lichtveld, a member and Vice Chair of Council of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), is Dean of the School of Public Health, the Jonas Salk Chair in Population Health, and Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health at the University of Pittsburgh with over 35 years of expertise in environmental health. As Dean, Dr. Lichtveld oversees seven academic departments, 1,200 students, 165 faculty and 320 staff. Her research focuses on environmentally induced disease, community-engaged environmental epidemiology studies, health disparities, climate and health, environmental health policy, disaster preparedness, public health systems and community resilience. Her expertise in climate and health is locally, nationally, and globally recognized. She is actively involved in Caribbean-wide climate and health research and research training examining the impact of climate change and associated contamination of seafood as a food safety and security issue, and climate adaptation associated with the impact of coastal erosion on forced migration of indigenous nations, including pregnant women with minimal access to health services. She provides technical expertise to several NAM and NASEM committees, including the NAM Grand Challenge in Climate and Health, HMD Boards, Roundtables, and Committees. She is a member of the National Research Council. Dean Lichtveld is the past-Chair of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health. She has co-authored the textbook on Environmental Policy and Public Health. Honors include Johns Hopkins University Society of Scholars, CDC Environmental Health Scientist of the Year, and Woman of the Year of the City of New Orleans for contributions to science.
10:40–10:47 AM
"The Inflection Point - The Critical Need for One Health Global Alliance"
Wondwossen Gebreyes, DVM, PhD, DACVPM
Distinguished Professor of Molecular Epimdeiology; President, Global One Health and Founder and CEO, One Health Global Alliance (OHGA)
Dr. Wondwossen A. Gebreyes is an internationally recognized educator, scientist, and global health leader dedicated to capacity building through integrated training, applied research, and engagement at the global level.
Dr. Gebreyes earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) from Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia and his PhD in Population Medicine from North Carolina State University. He is the founding Executive Director of the Global One Health initiative at The Ohio State University—one of the nation’s most comprehensive public, land-grant institutions—where he has played a pivotal role in advancing interdisciplinary collaboration across health sciences, agriculture, engineering, business, education, and the social sciences. In recognition of his leadership and scholarly impact, Dr. Gebreyes received the Hazel C. Youngberg Distinguished Professorship from The Ohio State University Office of Academic Affairs and was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Medicine (NAM). He has been instrumental in shaping and advancing the Global One Health paradigm, fostering collaboration across disciplines to address complex global health challenges.
Dr. Gebreyes currently serves in several prominent international leadership roles, including:
Member, Board of Trustees, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)
Member, Board of Directors, Science for Africa (SFA) Foundation
Member, Advisory Board, NIH Fogarty International Center
He is the Founder and CEO of the One Health Global Alliance (OHGA) and President of Ohio State Global One Health, LLC, a non-governmental, non-profit entity affiliated with The Ohio State University. The organization is licensed to operate in the State of Ohio and in sub-Saharan Africa, with headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Through this platform, Dr. Gebreyes has led numerous high-impact global initiatives, including efforts addressing COVID-19 social and public health impacts; the Global Health Security Agenda; NIH Fogarty research training programs focused on food-, water-, and vector-borne diseases in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Tanzania; and the Global Innovation Initiative (GII) in Brazil and Mexico. These programs employ integrated, community-engaged approaches to address critical global challenges such as epidemic and pandemic threats, food- and waterborne diseases (including cholera), and antimicrobial resistance, while strengthening institutional and human capacity across regions.
A molecular epidemiologist by training, Dr. Gebreyes is internationally renowned for his work on antimicrobial resistance—one of the most pressing global public health threats. He has led the application of state-of-the-art technologies to strengthen global research and training capacity and has mentored and advised more than 145 local and international students and scholars.
Among his notable academic and professional accomplishments:
Founder of the Global One Health Summer Institute, convened annually since 2012, engaging more than 8,500 trainees from over 75 countries and 20 U.S. states
Author of more than 260 peer-reviewed publications in leading scientific journals
Principal Investigator for multiple research and training programs funded by the NIH Fogarty International Center, CDC, U.S. Department of State, Global Innovation Initiative (U.S., U.K., Brazil), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and others
Secured more than $65 million in research and programmatic funding across two universities, including $35 million in the past five years.
Dr. Gebreyes has received numerous national and international honors; The Arnold Wedum Memorial Award (2025); the NIH Gold Medallion Award (2019); North Carolina State University Distinguished Alumni Award (2018); Universitas 21 International Award (2016); APLU Michael P. Malone International Leadership Award (2015); and honorable mention for the Andrew Heiskell Award from the Institute of International Education (IIE). He is also a Fellow of the American Council on Education (ACE).
10:47–10:54 AM
"Building Resilient Systems: A One Health Case for Integrated Surveillance in Suriname - Lessons from district Nickerie"
Firoz Abdoel Wahid, MD, MPH, PhD
Assistant Professor, School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh
Firoz Abdoel Wahid is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, where he also serves as the Faculty Representative for Sustainability. He is Associate Director of the Pennsylvania One Health Consortium. With nearly two decades of experience in public and environmental health, his work focuses on the intersections of environmental exposures, climate change, sustainability, and population health. Dr. Abdoel Wahid’s research spans the Caribbean and the United States, including studies on environmental contamination, maternal and child health, and disaster-related exposures. His work emphasizes a One Health framework to address complex challenges at the human–animal–environment interface.
10:54–11:01 AM
"Opportunities and challenges of One Health science, policy, and practice in LMICs and lessons learned"
Jessie Klousnitzer, PhD
NIH Fogarty Post-Doctoral Fellow
Dr. Klousnitzer is currently researching the impacts of extreme heat on agricultural workers and their families in Suriname . Additional research areas of interest include the effects of environmental factors on viral and bacterial illnesses.
11:01–11:15 AM Discussion & Q&A
Moderator to ask one overarching question to start the Q&A
Panel 3 — Animal Health
11:15–11:25 AM
Moderator/Speaker
"Co-Designing the Future of Animal Health"
Dean Andrew Hoffman, DVM, DVSc, DACVIM (Large Animals)
Gilbert S. Khan Dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine, Penn Vet, University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Andrew Hoffman is a large animal veterinarian who started his career in rural New England private practice. He is the Gilbert S. Kahn Dean of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania since 2018. Prior to his appointment as Dean, he was faculty at Tufts University for 24 years, where he assumed numerous leadership roles: Director of Equine Sports Medicine; Director of the Lung Function Testing Laboratory; Director of the Stem Cell Laboratory; and Director of the Regenerative Medicine Laboratory. His over 20 years of continuous NIH funding focused on therapies for emphysema and asthma, including AeriSealTM for human emphysema currently in U.S. clinical trials, and AeroHippusTM, which is the inhaler for treatment of equine asthma. Hoffman also developed a spectrum of non-invasive diagnostic lung function tests in animals ranging from mice to bottlenose dolphins to elephants. At the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) he founded the first Extracellular Vesicle core in the U.S. As Dean, Hoffman has focused on interdisciplinary and interprofessional scholarship for the veterinary profession including new dual degrees for VMD students, and founding the Institute of Infectious and Zoonotic Diseases, Center for Stewardship Agriculture and Food Security, and Wildlife Futures Program. He is a member of the National Academy of Practice, and serves on several advisory groups related to climate change and One Health, including founding Chair of the Climate Change Task Force of the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges, the National Academy of Medicine Action Collaborative (Education committee), the National Academy of Science Engineering and Medicine Environmental Health working subgroup, the Methane and Health working group of the Environmental Defense Fund, and Advisory Council for the Environmental Innovations Initiative among other things.
11:25–11:32 AM
"How Avian Flu Affected Us and Our Business"
Steven Horst
President, Fifth Day Farm Inc.
I am Stephen Horst, owner of Fifth Day Farm Inc. We raise and breed Pearl guineas to produce keets and fertile eggs for live market and backyard needs. My father-in-law Joel Martin started hatching silkies and then guineas in the late 1990’s. As the small family business grew to include ducks, chickens, and geese, us four sons-in-law also started joining to help with the different poultry lines. I started helping Joel in 2008 with guinea artificial insemination, then 2 year later started managing the Muscovy and Khaki Campbell ducks. In 2022, Joel started his retirement, and we assumed responsibly for the guinea production since then. More of our story and products can be found at freedomrangerhatchery.com.
I personally enjoy working with poultry, and having my family involved. We aim to continue providing excellent products for our customers who range from purchasing 10 keets for backyard needs to 10,000 keets for commercial meat production. Some purchase guineas to raise for tick control, whiles others buy to raise for the popular live city markets, or a fancy cruise ship dinner. We also offer fertile eggs for sale in a dozen quantities or by the case. Other services we provide are wing pinioning, and sexing of keets. We ship to all United States and export some.
11:32–11:39 AM
"Livestock Behavior and AI: The Part It Plays in PA One Health"
Daniel Foy
Co-Founder & CEO, AgriGates
Daniel Foy is the Co-Founder and CEO of AgriGates, a U.S.-based AgriTech company focused on Precision Livestock Farming and behavioral intelligence systems. AgriGates develops next-generation tools that integrate wearable sensors, video, and audio data with edge computing and AI models to generate real-time insights on animal behavior. These technologies support improved animal welfare, farm sustainability, and farmer-owned data value at the production level.
Daniel serves as Chair of SENSTARA, the European Federation of Animal Science (EAAP) Working Group on Sensors and Standards Development, where he leads an international effort to establish standardized protocols and data frameworks for behavioral and biometric research.
Originally from rural Ireland, Daniel holds a degree in Applied Pharmacology from Scotland and is now based in Philadelphia as a U.S. citizen. He brings over a decade of experience in AgriTech, working across academia, industry, and government in North America and Europe. He is an Industry Representative to the EAAP Precision Livestock Farming Study Commission and an active contributor to the National Institute of Animal Agriculture.
Daniel is also a founder of the DAT-AI-LAB at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine’s New Bolton Center. The lab serves as a collaborative, on-farm research hub focused on generating high-quality annotated datasets, management and machine learning models for real-world livestock applications.
11:39–11:46 AM
"Microbiome-Driven Approaches for Enhancing Ruminant Health and Sustainability"
Dipti Pitta
BVSc, MVSc, PhD, Mark Whittier and Lila Griswold Professor of Ruminant Nutrition
Dr. Dipti Pitta is the Mark Whittier and Lila Griswold Allam Professor of Ruminant Nutrition at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. A veterinarian with a PhD in ruminant nutrition and microbiology from Massey University, New Zealand, she leads the Agricultural Systems and Microbial Genomics (ASMG) Laboratory at New Bolton Center. Her research focuses on the rumen microbiome and its critical role in animal health, productivity, and environmental sustainability. She emphasizes early-life microbial interventions to improve growth, immune function, and long-term resilience in dairy cattle. By integrating microbial ecology, fermentation biology, and advanced genomic tools, her work advances strategies to enhance animal health while reducing enteric methane emissions and antimicrobial resistance. Dr. Pitta’s program is supported by over $8 million in funding from federal agencies, industry, and commodity groups. She has mentored over 40 students and trainees, contributing to workforce development and innovation in agricultural and veterinary sciences.