Gillian Tarr

Background & Expertise

Gillian Tarr, PhD, is an Associate Professor and infectious disease epidemiologist with a focus on environmental disease ecology, including foodborne and vector-borne pathogens. Her primary work uses pathogen genomics to better understand how Shiga toxin-producing E. coli are maintained and transmitted through the environment, including their zoonotic reservoir. Tarr is particularly passionate about expanding our knowledge of pathogen persistence at the ecosystem level. She works closely with public health partners to translate her research into tools for public health disease control. With diverse methodological expertise, including spatial and genomic epidemiology, predictive modeling and causal inference, Tarr also contributes to work on antimicrobial and diagnostic stewardship, clinical prognostic decision support tools and agricultural intervention evaluation.