Meet our Faculty: Dr. Rhea Hanselmann, DVM, MPVM
- undergraduate2
- Apr 14, 2016
- 3 min read
Dr. Hanselmann joined the Tropical Diseases, Environmental Change, and Human Health Semester as a resident faculty member in Fall 2015.
Can you talk about your background?
In 1998, I moved from Zürich, Switzerland to the United States to complete my undergraduate degree in Biotechnology at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. After a summer working as a wildlife biologist, I attended Tufts University’s School of Veterinary Medicine and received my doctoral degree and certificate in international wildlife conservation medicine in 2005.
After graduation, I pursued veterinary fellowships in both medicine and anesthesia, and spent a few years in clinical practice. Eventually, I returned to academia and completed a Masters in Preventive Veterinary Medicine program at the University of California, Davis focusing on wildlife and ecosystem health. As a Smithsonian Institution post-doctoral fellow at the Mpala Research Center, I was granted the opportunity to research the health of kori bustards (Ardeotis kori) in disturbed landscapes in Kenya.
Since 2010, I have been a PhD student at Oregon State University studying the impacts of anthropogenic environmental change on health and disease in wildlife. During my time at OSU, I developed an interest in teaching and mentoring both undergraduate and veterinary students. In 2014, I completed a Graduate Certificate in College and University Teaching.
Finally, in August of 2015, I joined the Organization for Tropical Studies Tropical Diseases, Environmental Change and Human Health undergraduate semester abroad program in Costa Rica as a resident professor. In this course, I focus my teaching on disease ecology, epidemiology, and research design.

What made you interested in teaching an OTS course?
I enjoy mentoring students and getting them excited about field and laboratory research. When I added my main research interest in how environmental change influences health in animal (including human) populations, and mixed in my long-standing fondness of Latin America, I ended up with the perfect recipe for teaching in the OTS Tropical Diseases, Environmental Change and Human Health course. In fact, I cannot think of a better way or place to combine my passions than to work alongside interested undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds to study diseases in a field course that takes place in one of the most biodiverse regions of the world!
What is the best thing about the Tropical Diseases program?
One of the things that I like most about this course is how diverse it is. Our faculty each have different backgrounds and unique research interests. Similarly, our students attend universities all over the US and come from a variety of different majors. Being in close quarters for an entire semester with such a diverse group means that we get to know each other and everyone’s specific interests in health and diseases pretty well. This frequently allows us to adapt the curriculum to the group’s interests and to discuss issues that we may not have planned on incorporating initially. Teaching in this way keeps us all on our toes and makes for an exciting and cutting-edge learning environment.
(And, of course, learning in the middle of beautiful tropical ecosystems where peccaries crossing your path are just as likely to make you late for class as is an unexpected torrential downpour never gets old.)
How can the Tropical Diseases program make a student a more competitive applicant for veterinary school?
Studying abroad is a unique and highly formative experience. Students who apply for and successfully complete a rigorous study abroad semester such as the OTS Tropical Diseases, Environmental Change and Human Health course are clearly driven both personally and academically. Yet, what really sets our students apart are the skills they develop to face new situations, overcome obstacles, and recognize their own limits.
Sure, your academic performance, research and clinical experiences are essential elements of a successful application to veterinary school. But, your demonstrated ability to live through a tough program and come out of it stronger, more mature, and a better collaborator than when you began are the characteristics that will set you apart from other applicants.
Speaking of collaboration, the OTS Tropical Diseases, Environmental Change and Human Health course is founded on the idea that the health of humans, animals, and the environment we share are intricately linked. Each of these elements is dependent on the others’ wellbeing. The Tropical Diseases course allows you to appreciate these connections by working alongside peers with a diversity of backgrounds and interests: environmental science, biology, and medicine to name a few.
Gaining practice in and recognizing the importance of this type of interdisciplinary One Health approach will open your eyes and pave your path to a diversity of careers in veterinary medicine, including clinical practice, public health, or research.
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