Gemma Chaters is a lecturer in population health at Lancaster medical school. A veterinary epidemiologist with 10 years of clinical veterinary experience in production animal practice in the UK, an MSc in Veterinary Epidemiology from the LSHTM and a PhD in Epidemiology and Network Analysis from the University of Glasgow. She has experience working with livestock and zoonoses epidemiological field research in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda and worked as analyst for the Global burden of animal diseases programme.