Christa A. Gallagher, DVM, CCRP, MPH, DACVPM, PhD
Biomedical Sciences
P.O. Box 334
Basseterre, St. Kitts, West Indies
Phone: +1 869-465-4161 Ext. 401-1137
cgallagher@rossvet.edu.kn
Dr. Christa A. Gallagher earned her DVM from Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine in 1993. She is a Professor of Veterinary Public Health and Epidemiology and has been teaching at RUSVM since 2011.
Prior to her public health career in academia, Dr. Gallagher spent 24 years in both large and small animal private practice in upstate New York and North Carolina; 18 of those years as a veterinary practice owner in North Carolina. In 2005 she became a Certified Canine Rehabilitation Practitioner (CCRP) and expanded her veterinary hospital to include a physical rehabilitation referral practice. In 2006, she became involved with the NC State Veterinary Response Corps and developed a strong passion for public health and disaster management. In 2007 she earned a certificate in Community Preparedness and Disaster Management from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. She earned a Master of Public Health from the University of Iowa in 2012 and became a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine in 2013. Dr. Gallagher completed a PhD in Population Health in 2024.
Currently Dr. Gallagher teaches veterinary public health and epidemiology, and disaster management in the DVM and Master of Science in One Health programs at RUSVM. She founded and leads the RUSVM Disaster Research Working Group, which focuses on veterinary contributions to increase understanding, knowledge, and capacity to prepare for and respond to disasters regionally and globally. Administratively, she serves as Head of Division for the Microbiology, Parasitology and Epidemiology Division within the Biomedical Sciences Department.
Dr. Gallagher’s scientific interest in research includes the ecology and epidemiology of infectious disease involving wildlife and livestock, the incorporation of health promotion and harm reduction in population health, and veterinary/One Health disaster management. Dr. Gallagher completed a PhD in Population Health in 2024.
Education
BS, State University of New York at Albany
DVM, Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine
MPH, University of Iowa
Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine
PhD, Population Health, RUSVM
Certifications
Certified Canine Rehabilitation Practitioner (CCRP), University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine
Community Preparedness and Disaster Management Certificate (CPDM); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Gillings School of Global Public Health
Interests
Teaching interests include:
Zoonoses; health promotion and population health; public health and One Health competencies; disaster management and systems thinking
Research interests include:
health promotion/harm reduction for complex One Health problems, participatory epidemiology, wildlife and conservation medicine, veterinary perspective in disaster preparation and response
Publication Highlights
Cruz-Martinez, L., Hervé-Claude, L. P., Gallagher, C. A., Dzikiti, L., & Little, W. B. (2024). The role of exposure to nature in perceived stress by veterinary students. Discov Psychol 4, 83 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s44202-024-00199-2
Gallagher, C., & Stephen, C. (2024). Does an Enabling Policy Environment Exist to Manage the Cross-Sectoral “Monkey Problems” of St. Kitts? Caribbean Journal of Science, 54(1), 109-120
Trujillo, M., Conan, A., Calchi, A. C., Mertens-Scholz, K., Becker, A., Gallagher, C., ... & Müller, A. (2024). Bacterial burden and molecular characterization of Coxiella burnetii in shedding pregnant and postpartum ewes from Saint Kitts. Comparative Immunology, Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, 109, 102188.
Stephen, C., Walsh, M. C., Delage, E., Cross, J., & Gallagher, C. (2024). Scanning educational opportunities to confront grand challenges in animal health. Research Directions-Cambridge University Press, doi:10.33774/coe-2024-c3fml
Mancuso, D. M., Gainor, K., Dore, K. M., Gallagher, C. A., Beierschmitt, A., Malik, Y. S., & Ghosh, S. (2024). Molecular Detection and Genetic Diversity of Cytomegaloviruses and Lymphocryptoviruses in Free-Roaming and Captive African Green Monkeys (Chlorocebus sabaeus). International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 25(6), 3272.
Mancuso, D. M., Gainor, K., Dore, K. M., Gallagher, C. A., Cruz, K., Beierschmitt, A., ... & Ghosh, S. (2023). Detection and Molecular Characterization of Adenoviruses in Captive and Free-Roaming African Green Monkeys (Chlorocebus sabaeus): Evidence for Possible Recombination and Cross-Species Transmission. Viruses, 15(7), 1605.
Trujillo, M., Conan, A., Calchi, A. C., Mertens-Scholtz, K., Becker, A. A., Gallagher, C., ... & Müller, A. (2023). Coxiella burnetii shedding and serological status in pregnant and postpartum ewes. Acta Tropica, 106962.
Dore, K., Gallagher, C., Mill, A. (2023). Telemetry-Based Assessment of Home Range to Estimate the Abundance of Invasive Green Monkeys on St. Kitts. Caribbean Journal of Science, 53.
Conan, A., Gallagher, C., Erskine, N., Howland, M., Smith-Anthony, M., Marchi, S., ... & Becker, A. A. (2023). Is there a higher risk of exposure to Coxiella burnetii for pre-clinical veterinary students? One Health, 100485.
Gallagher, C. A., Hervé-Claude, L. P., Cruz-Martinez, L., & Stephen, C. (2022). Understanding Community Perceptions of the St. Kitts’“Monkey Problem” by Adapting Harm Reduction Concepts and Methods. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 10, 904797.
Gallagher, C. A., Keehner, J. R., Hervé-Claude, L. P., & Stephen, C. (2021). Health promotion and harm reduction attributes in One Health literature: A scoping review. One Health, 13, 100284.
Muehlenbein, M. P., Dore, K. M., Gassen, J., Nguyen, V., Jolley, O. G., & Gallagher, C. (2021). Travel medicine meets conservation medicine in St. Kitts: Disinhibition, cognitive‐affective inconsistency, and disease risk among vacationers around green monkeys (Chlorocebus sabaeus). American Journal of Primatology, e23301.
Valentine, M. J., Ciraola, B., Aliota, M. T., Vandenplas, M., Marchi, S., Tenebray, B., …Gallagher, C., …Kelly, P. J. (2020). No evidence for sylvatic cycles of chikungunya, dengue and Zika viruses in African green monkeys (Chlorocebus aethiops sabaeus) on St. Kitts, West Indies. Parasit Vectors, 13(1), 540. doi:10.1186/s13071-020-04419-1
Conan, A., Becker, A. A. M. J., Alava, V., Chapwanya, A., Carter, J., Roman, K., Avsaroglu, H., Gallagher, C. A. (2020). Detection of Coxiella burnetii antibodies in sheep and cattle on a veterinary campus in St. Kitts: Implications for one health in the Caribbean region. One Health, 10, 100163. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.onehlt.2020.100163
Dore, K. M., Hansen, M. F., Klegarth, A. R., Fichtel, C., Koch, F., Springer, A., ...Gallagher, C. & Raballand, E. (2020). Review of GPS collar deployments and performance on nonhuman primates. Primates, 1-15.
Gallagher, C., Beierschmitt, A., Cruz, K., Choo, J., & Ketzis, J. (2019). Should monkeys wash their hands and feet: A pilot-study on sources of zoonotic parasite exposure. One Health, 7, 100088.
Navarro, R., Nair, R., Peda, A., Aung, M.S., GS, A., Gallagher, C., Malik, Y., Kobayashi, N., Ghosh, S. 2017. Molecular Characterization of Canine Parvovirus and Canine Enteric Coronavirus in Diarrheic Dogs on the Island of St. Kitts: First Report from the Caribbean Region. Virus Res. 240: 154-160.
Gallagher CA, Navarro R, Cruz K, Aung MS, Ng A, Bajak E, Beierschmitt A, Lawrence M, Dore KM, Ketzis J, Malik YS, Kobayashi N, Ghosh S. 2017. Detection of picobirnaviruses in vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus sabaeus): Molecular characterization of complete genomic segment-2. Virus Res. 230:13-18.
Navarro R, Aung MS, Cruz K, Ketzis J, Gallagher CA, Beierschmitt A, Malik YS, Kobayashi N, Ghosh S. 2017. Whole genome analysis provides evidence for porcine-to-simian interspecies transmission of rotavirus-A. Infect Genet Evol. 49:21-31.
Willingham, A. L., Cruz-Martinez, L., Scorpio, D. G., & Gallagher, C. A. 2016. Global Solutions to Regional Challenges: Bridging the One Health Divide in the Caribbean. One Health, 2, 8-10.
Soto, E., Arauz, M., Gallagher, C., Illanes, O. 2016. Nocardia Cyriacigeorgica as the Causative Agent of Mandibular Actinomycetoma (“Lumpy Jaw”) in a Cat. Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation, 26(4), 580-584.
Book chapters:
Gallagher, C. and Tickel, J. (2023). Climate Change-related Hazards and Disasters: An Unrelenting Threat to Animal and Ecosystem Health. In Climate Change and Animal Health (pp. 181-196). CRC Press.
Gallagher, C. and Fenton, H. (2022). From Amazon Floods and Australian Wildfires to Human Spills and Explosions: What Disasters Mean to Wildlife. In Wildlife Population Health (pp. 129-143). Springer, Cham.
Gallagher, C. (2020). Making a Case for Harm Reduction in Invasive Species Management: The St. Kitts “Monkey Problem”. In Animals, Health, and Society (pp. 297-304). CRC Press.
Stephen, C., & Gallagher, C. (2020). Health Promotion as a Foundation for Reciprocal Care and Collective Action. In Animals, Health, and Society (pp. 53-68). CRC Press.
Gallagher, C., Jones, B., Tickel, J. “Towards Resilience: The One Health Approach in Disasters”. One Health: The theory and practice of integrated health approaches. Chapter 25. 2nd edition. (in copy, Feb. 2020)
