Vanessa Hale, MAT DVM, PhD

Director of Program development

Vanessa Hale is an Associate Professor in the Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine at the Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine. She has been fascinated by primates since reading about Jane Goodall in high school. She did her undergraduate degree at the University of Georgia and then went on to become a high school teacher in New Mexico and received a Masters in Teaching at Western New Mexico State University. During one of her summers as a teacher, she went to China to work on a field project studying snub-nosed monkeys. After that, she was hooked! She then pursued a DVM PhD at Purdue University. Her PhD focused on the gut microbiota of free-ranging colobines and those under human care. This led her to fall in love with microbes almost as much as primates. She then completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the Mayo Clinic Microbiome Program before starting as a faculty member at Ohio State University. Her research explores the role of the gut and urine microbiome in human and animal diseases. The goal of her research is ultimately to reveal ways in which we can utilize the microbiome to predict, prevent, or treat disease. She works across species but always tries to maintain some involvement in projects that promote primate health, welfare, and conservation.

Contact Vanessa via email at: vhale@fortheloveofprimates.org.