Tracey S. McNamara, D.V.M., Diplomate, A.C.V.P., is a Professor of Pathology at Western University of Health Sciences College of Veterinary Medicine in Pomona, CA. She graduated from the New York State College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University. She served as senior zoo pathologist at the Bronx Zoo from 1987-2003 and held the Schiff Family Distinguished Scientist in Wild Animal Pathology endowed chair.

Dr. McNamara specializes in the recognition and understanding of the diseases of captive and free-ranging wildlife and is best known for her work on West Nile virus. Her role in the discovery of the West Nile virus is described in the September 2000 GAO report “West Nile Virus – Lessons for Public Health Emergency Preparedness”,“Germs” by Judith Miller and “Secret Agents” by Madeline Drexler. In The Scientist (March 4, 2002), she is credited as having “served a central role as a unifying force, molding and sometimes forcing interrelationships between local and federal government agencies and private enterprises, enabling progress toward the common goal of monitoring a newly emerging disease in the United States.”

Dr. McNamara serves as a consultant to the National Biosurveillance Advisory Subcommittee and will be actively involved in the development of the Nation’s biosurveillance strategy. Most recently, she was asked to serve as lead on a project with Russian colleagues on the “Human-Animal Interface” by the Nuclear Threat Initiative’s Global Health and Biosecurity program in Wash. DC.