STUDENT
SPOTLIGHT
Olivia Magaletta successfully completed her master’s degree in Entomology at the University of Florida – Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, a center part of the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. Drs. Lindsay Campbell and Yoosook Lee co-advised her master’s program. She specializes in the mapping and modeling of invasive mosquito species. She is a strong advocate for IPM, actively contributing to workshops, teaching, and outreach for non-native and invasive mosquito management workshops, STEM outreach events, and authoring Extension publications.
Improving surveillance of invasive and non-native mosquito species is critical to aid in control and reduce disease transmission risk that impacts human and animal health. Olivia has contributed tremendously to the multistate Mosquito BEACONS Working Group by building and maintaining an online invasive mosquito dashboard for 18 non-native and invasive mosquito species of importance in the Southern US region.
The main component of Olivia’s research leverages geospatial technologies to map and model non-native and invasive mosquito species in the southern United States. One invasive mosquito species of importance to the southern U.S. region is Culex coronator, which recently expanded in geographic range. Her manuscript that analyzed the survey of mid-term evaluation on Mosquito BEACONS working group is in press at the Journal of American Mosquito Control Association.
Olivia earned a BS in biology and a minor in secondary education. Throughout her academic career, she has participated in multiple public education and outreach events aimed at exposing students to disease vectors and vector-borne disease prevention methods. Olivia has also engaged with mosquito control programs directly, serving as a consultant to the Anastasia Mosquito Control District (AMCD) in their Disease Vector Education Center (DVEC). Here, she aided in providing feedback for continued engagement in their K-12 educational program, and worked collaboratively with AMCD’s team to create lesson plan templates for continued use. IPM approaches are incorporated across lesson plans. By aiding in the development and delivery of these public engagement programs, Olivia has brought and maintained awareness about mosquito biology and disease prevention measures to the public using IPM approaches.
She now started a new chapter in her academic journey as a PhD student at Texas A&M University in the Department of Entomology with Dr. Tereza Magalhaes. Here, Olivia aims to fill critical knowledge gaps surrounding eastern equine encephalitis and its complexes. We are excited with her achievement and looking forward to seeing her grow in the vector-borne disease field.
