HSDEC offers NORTHCOM internship to a Bush School graduate student who is enrolled in Texas A&M's Master of Veterinary Public Health program.

Amy Pohl, a graduate student in Texas A&M's Master of Veterinary Public Health program as well as the Bush School of Government and Public Service, has received an internship with NORTHCOM working under the surgeon general in Colorado Springs, Colo. The internship was awarded through the Homeland Security and Defense Consortium (HSDEC).

"I hope to spend 8-10 weeks in Colorado working on education and research topics that are important to the Surgeon General and NORTHCOM," Pohl said.  "My hope is to see my studies come together and work with very experienced people from various backgrounds. I still wish to practice traditional-clinical veterinary medicine, but hope that there will be a unique place for me, in the future, working closer with the protection, research, and policy in the agriculture industry."

In her work at Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and the Bush School, Pohl's studies focus on the safety of the nation’s food supply from intentional and unintentional biological introductions.

"My ultimate goal is to combine the investigative and surveillance methods of epidemiology, veterinary medicine and disease,  public health, and homeland security studies to analyze and implement policy for our food supply, economy, and public health," she said.  "I would hope my efforts could bridge the gap between science, medicine, and policy. In summary, I want to play an active role in the protection and resilience of the nation’s agriculture industry."

Photo: Amy Pohl in front of the Large Animal Clinic at Texas A&M University's College of Veterinary Medicine. (Photography by Jean Wulfson, digital imaging specialist, VPR Communications, Office of the Vice President of Research, Texas A&M University)