Heather Coatsworth, PhD, is a postdoctoral associate at SECVBD in the Dinglasan Lab at the Emerging Pathogens Institute and Department of Infectious Diseases & Immunology at the University of Florida advised by SECVBD Director Rhoel Dinglasan. As an undergrad at University of Guelph, Ontario, she became very interested in entomology and worked with Dr. Alex Smith, whose lab studies the molecular ecology of ants. Looking for a way to combine her passion for entomology with her interest in medicine, Heather began to look for medical entomology programs for graduate school, and found her PhD mentor, Dr. Carl Lowenberger at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. She completed her PhD in Biology in 2019 and her dissertation research focused on mosquito vector competence, genetics and bioinformatics.