Opening Keynote Speaker

URISA is honored to have Dr. Corrie Brown as our opening keynote speaker at URISA's GIS in Public Health Conference in Providence, RI.

Keynote Address: Emerging Zoonotic Diseases and the Need for Global Surveillance
Globalization has created a complex tapestry of trade in a myriad of goods and services.  The world is increasingly reliant on the flow of trade, with an unprecedented level of economic interdependence between countries. This globalized trade and travel has effectively created a “collapse of space,” in fact, with the world becoming smaller regarding actual separation of people, animals, and places. One of the effects has been the emergence and dissemination of animal and human diseases, often one and the same, e.g., SARS, HPAI, Nipah, BSE.  These emerging zoonotic diseases pose a great threat to the world. 

The concept of “one medicine,” which has been discussed for decades, has special resonance now, and it is imperative that awareness and response systems between animal and human health be coordinated and integrated, in order to effectively safeguard the global public health. 

Corrie Brown received her B.Sc. in Animal Behavior from McGill University and her DVM from Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph (1981).  She completed a combined residency/PhD in Comparative Pathology at the University of California at Davis.  Board certification (ACVP) and PhD were both attained in 1986. 

She was an assistant professor of pathology at Louisiana State University briefly before joining the U.S. Department of Agriculture at Plum Island, where, as Head of the Pathology Section, she specialized in the diagnosis and pathogenesis of foreign animal diseases.  In 1996, she joined the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine as Professor and Head of the Department of Veterinary Pathology.  She currently serves as Coordinator of International Veterinary Medicine for the College of Veterinary Medicine. In 2003, she was honored with the university’s highest teaching award, being named a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor. 

Her professional interests are in infectious diseases of food-producing animals, emerging diseases, and international veterinary medicine.  She has published or presented over 250 scientific papers and has testified to Congress on issues involving agroterrorism.  She has served on many industrial and federal panels, and been a technical consultant to numerous foreign governments on issues involving infectious diseases and animal health infrastructure.