Captive Bears Expert Team Co-chair

In her role as a veterinarian, Kirsty worked with captive bears in Southeast Asia for over a decade. Alongside husbandry and management teams and with veterinary colleagues she developed and oversaw veterinary health programmes for bear rescue and conservation organisations, and continues to provide regular support and advice to veterinarians working with captive bears across Asia. She has an interest in the disease risks humans create for bears through captivity, and how they might be mitigated, managed, and ideally, avoided. The focus of her Master of Veterinary Studies in Conservation Medicine was oral squamous cell carcinoma syndrome in captive sun bears, and her doctoral thesis  investigated the emergence of human tuberculosis strains in captive sun bears and Asiatic black bears in high TB burden regions. Kirsty is a director of Vets Beyond Borders and an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in Murdoch University's School of Veterinary Medicine. She is committed to finding ways to improve access to appropriate, high quality, and locally driven veterinary care for all species, particularly in isolated and low resource settings.