.jpg "Teresa J. Sylvina, VMD, MPH, DACLAM photo")
Strategic Initiatives on Animal Research; Director, Institute for Laboratory Animal Research (ILAR), Director, Roundtable on Science and Welfare of Laboratory Animal Use, Director, World Organisation on Animal Health (formerly called OIE)
Washington, District of Columbia
Teresa J. Sylvina is Director, Strategic Initiatives on Animal Research at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She was hired to make substantial programmatic changes in animal research programs for the Division of Earth and Life Studies: adding conservation research and education, decision-making to address biodiversity loss and species extinction, and “One-Health” approaches to integrate human, animal, and environmental health, while at the same time bolstering the biomedical research program on the science, care, welfare and use of animal models, the 3R’s (reduction, refinement and replacement) and the use of non-animal alternatives. At the Academies, Dr. Sylvina is Director of the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research (ILAR), the Academies Roundtable on Science and Welfare of Animals in Research, and the World Organisation on Animal Health (formerly known as OiE) Collaborating Centre on Science and Welfare of Research Animal Use. For over 25 years, she served as Attending Veterinarian, IACUC member and director of large laboratory animal research programs for academic and private non-profit research institutions in the U.S. During this time, she also focused on using non-invasive methodologies to study the health and well-being of wild chimpanzees at Mahale Mountains and Rubondo Island in Tanzania. As lead of an international team of experts, a human metapneumovirus was identified (using scat) as responsible for acute and fatal respiratory disease in Mahale chimpanzees. Through an NSF CAREER Award, she developed a completely solar-powered portable laboratory and portable cyberinfrastructure to support these activities. As an independent scholar, she was recipient of a USFWS Great Ape Conservation Award working on chimpanzee conservation in the Mahale Mountains. As an independent Fulbright Scholar in Tanzania she taught courses on bringing the rigors of scientific inquiry to bear on animal-human-environmental health in resource-limited settings; and studied pathogen transfer between elephants, African Buffalo and the Maasai co-existing in West Kilimanjaro. Prior to her work in Africa, she was awarded an NSF POWRE Award to study wildlife as sentinels for environmental mercury contamination in New England and New York State and developed an integrated cyberinfrastructure with georeferencing capability as a model for monitoring and evaluation. Prior to her appointment at the Academies, she served as President and CEO of Bush-To-Base Solutions, Inc., an international One-Health non-profit that she founded in 2011, dedicated to bringing the rigors of scientific inquiry to the challenges of human-animal-environmental health in resource-limited settings.Dr. Sylvina is a Diplomate in the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine. She received her VMD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, MPH from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health (International Health) and BS (Biology; with Marine Science Certification) from the Pennsylvania State University.
Thursday, December 15, 2022
10:00 AM – 11:30 AM ET