Neeta Connally

Neeta Pardanani Connally is a medical entomologist who oversees the Tickborne Disease Prevention Laboratory at WCSU.  Her research efforts are aimed at the prevention of Lyme and other infectious diseases transmitted by blacklegged ticks in the northeastern United States.  In particular, lab and field projects focus upon how diseases can be prevented peridomestically by manipulating the landscape, interfering with the tick life cycle, or by changing patterns of human behavior.  Current work is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency, and collaborators on Lyme disease prevention projects include the Town of Ridgefield Health Department, Lyme Connection, Western Connecticut Health Network, the Connecticut Emerging Infections Program, the Connecticut Department of Public Health, and the TickEncounter Resource Center at the Univ. of Rhode Island.  Dr. Connally holds a B.S. in Animal Biology from Louisiana Tech, a M.S.P.H. in Public Health (Human Parasitology) from Tulane University, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Science (Medical Entomology) from the University of Rhode Island.  Before joining the WCSU Biology Dept. in 2011, she was an Associate Research Scientist at the Connecticut Emerging Infections Program at Yale School of Public Health where she oversaw epidemiologic studies pertaining to Lyme disease risk and the prevention of tickborne diseases in the northeastern US.  Dr. Connally was the recipient of the 2014 Connecticut State University Board of Regents Faculty Research Award at WCSU and the 2015 Connecticut Campus Compact Community Engaged Scholar Award.  For more details, please visit http://sites.wcsu.edu/connallyn/