Gorilla Doctors is thrilled to announce that Dr. Tierra, our chief veterinary and scientific officer, is joining the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) this coming January 2025.

Dr. Tierra’s position at UCB is a joint appointment with the Department of Integrative Biology and the School of Public Health and will enable her to expand her research on emerging infectious diseases, an ideal complement to Gorilla Doctors’ commitment to One Health – an approach that recognizes and studies health connections and impacts among wildlife, humans and the environment.

Dr. Tierra will also maintain her formal affiliation at the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine (UCD SVM) as adjunct faculty, which continues to serve as the primary partner of Gorilla Doctors’ nonprofit arm, the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, Inc (MGVP, Inc).

FUN FACT: While Gorilla Doctors has been in existence since 1986, originally as the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP), the name ‘Gorilla Doctors’ wasn’t officially created until MGVP and the Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center at UCD SVM formed a partnership in 2009.

The addition of UCB to Gorilla Doctors ever-expanding network of global experts and resources opens tremendous opportunities for Gorilla Doctors to advance our ambitious scientific strategic plan that focuses on the following key goals over the next five years:

1) Advance evidence-based clinical knowledge to achieve best-possible medicine for eastern gorillas in the wild

2) Lead surveillance and investigational research on infectious pathogens impacting or threatening eastern gorilla health

3) Lead investigational research on non-infectious conditions impacting great ape health

4) Predict future eastern gorilla health impacts under conditions of global environmental change

Central to Gorilla Doctors mission has always been capacity-strengthening for staff, veterinary students and early career professionals in East-Central Africa. Dr. Tierra’s new position at UCB will also increase opportunities for student research and training with a special focus on building skills to conduct research in limited-resource field settings and advancing our regional laboratory’s capacity for state-of-the-art diagnostics and scientific investigations.

“The cornerstone of Gorilla Doctors and our One Health approach is collaboration, so when UC Berkeley offered me this faculty position it held great promise for Gorilla Doctors and the expansion of our science program. Capacity strengthening and support of our regional staff in their scientific investigations is a huge part of my role as CVSO and I am excited that Gorilla Doctors will now be able to share in the scientific excellence of both the #1 public science institution and the #1 school of veterinary medicine in the United States.  I was lucky enough as a PhD student at UC Davis to study my favorite animal – the mountain gorilla – so UCD will always be ‘first home’ to me. It is an honor to bring the world-class reputation of both institutions to the work and mission of Gorilla Doctors,” said Dr. Tierra.

Congratulations, Dr. Tierra!

---