Kaylee Byers
Assistant Professor
Kaylee Byers
Assistant Professor
Areas of interest
One Health; Planetary Health; Wildlife Health; Human-Animal Relationships; Human Dimension; Health Equity; Social Determinants of Health; Ecological Determinants of Health; Health Communications; Implementation Science; Knowledge Mobilization; Community-Based Research
Biography
Dr. Kaylee Byers is an Assistant Professor in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia, a Senior Scientist with the Pacific Institute on Pathogens, Pandemics and Society, and the Deputy Director of the British Columbia node of the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative. Prior to joining UBC she was an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at 91泡芙. Dr. Byers is a settler scholar of European ancestry, with roots in both Canada鈥檚 Maritime (Nova Scotia) and prairie provinces (Alberta).
Dr. Byers is an interdisciplinary scholar with over a decade of experience working in the field of One Health, which recognizes the interconnected health of people, animals, and the environment. As the lead of the OH-HI (One Health, Human dimensions and Implementation) Science CoLab, her team works across disciplines to explore health systems, with a focus on understanding how perceptions shape actions as well as strengthening processes to mobilize knowledge. Her team works on issues such as chronic wasting disease in deer, avian influenza, rodent management, and health communications. Outside of research, she is an active and enthusiastic science communicator. She co-founded, organizes and hosts Nerd Nite Vancouver, a science seminar series which aims to share science in a casual setting. She is also the host of Genome British Columbia鈥檚 award-winning podcast 鈥淣ice Genes鈥� which explores the role of genomics in society.
Dr. Byers is also currently the team lead of the CoLab Team
.
Research Interests
Dr. Byers is interested in collaborative, community-based research. She leads a broad research program in One Health, Human dimensions and Implementation Science (OH-HI Science) that centers around enhancing local, national, and global capacity to better detect, manage, and mitigate health threats at the nexus of human, animal, and environmental health. Her current projects include strengthening detection and management of Chronic Wasting Disease (a prion pathogen that affects cervids) and Avian Influenza Virus (which affects wild waterbirds and poultry). Using a One Health lens, an interdisciplinary approach, and mixed methods, she investigates how community knowledge and perceptions of One Health issues relate to public participation in disease surveillance and health promoting behaviours, and identifies communication strategies, programs, and policies that support communities in their health decisions. She is particularly interested in projects that integrate innovative and creative forms of knowledge mobilization.
Publications
View Dr. Byers' publications at