Elizabeth (Brunner) Wescott is a graduate student, originally from many states as a Navy brat growing up, but she calls North Carolina her hometown. She completed her undergrad at Davidson College, where she did an honors thesis on mitochondrial membrane shaping in Drosophila, as well as a summer internship at Ohio State University investigating non-autonomous gene expression variance in the Ras pathway. She then took a job at Duke University as a research assistant. There, she transitioned to the field of immunology, studying HIV infection of kidney and HIV vaccine development. She started at Vanderbilt in August 2018 and joined the Balko Lab in April 2019. Outside the lab, she enjoys spending time outdoors hiking and hammocking with her husband, climbing, running, baking, playing music, and traveling.

Jeanette is from central Florida and earned her B.S. in advertising at the University of Florida before receiving her B.S. in microbiology from the University of South Florida. During her undergraduate, Jeanette's research focused on understanding the contribution of light pollution to disease dynamics in the lab of Dr. Lynn Martin. Now, in graduate school, Jeanette is in the lab of Dr. Eric Skaar. She devotes her research time to understanding the dynamic interplay between the vertebrate immune system and Acinetobacter baumannii in the sequestration of nutrient metals. In her free time, Jeanette greatly enjoys reading, hiking, and playing with her cat and dog.

I hail from the wonderful island of St. Thomas part of the US Virgin Islands. I earned my degree in biology with a minor in psychology from the University of the Virgin Islands. As an undergrad, I worked in Dr. Jennifer Robinson lab on Stegastes adustus erythrocytes infected with Haemohormidium-like apicomplexan parasites.

Awards and Honors:

OBGAPS Social Chair