Career Advice: Marieke Rosenbaum

Marieke Rosenbaum is a Research Assistant Professor and the pathway leader for the Combined DVM-MPH program at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine with a secondary appointment in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at the Tufts University School of Medicine. Her academic and research interests are focused on health and disease in the context of human-animal relationships. Her current global research activities include studying infectious disease ecology in Peruvian nonhuman primates from a variety of interfaces for human-primate interactions (ie wetmarkets, pet primates, sanctuaries, road side attractions), and how cohabitation with production animals may affect the microbiota of Guatemalan children. Locally, Dr. Rosenbaum studies lead and Salmonella in urban chicken flocks, and Staphylococcus aureus carriage and antimicrobial resistance in greater Boston’s urban rodent population.

Hannah Uebele: Can you tell me how you got interested in this career and how you started?

Marieke Rosenbaum: I got into veterinary medicine because I was always interested in wildlife – my dad was a landscaper and he would always bring home orphaned or injured wildlife and we would sort of rehabilitate them and release them – which really isn’t the way you’re supposed to do it, but that really got me invested in wildlife and conservation. I worked as a wildlife rehabilitator, a licensed rehabilitator in Massachusetts for a couple years. Then I went to vet school thinking I would probably focus on wildlife, but got more and more interested in public health and how the strong and different types of relationships we have with animals might facilitate or promote health, risk, or disease but in a bi-directional manner.

Uebele: For students thinking about becoming a veterinarian or working in areas of animal health, do you recommend they follow the same sort of academic path as you?

Rosenbaum: For me every step has been this cumulative experience and its all helped me get to where I am. I can’t envision for example doing this type of work without having had a vet degree. Largely because it lands me at a veterinarian institution that has a funding mechanism for this type of research, that can sometimes be hard to get as far as pilot projects go. I think in general I’m of the mindset that there’s no right way to do something. You shouldn’t just write off a career path because someone said you had to get all A’s, or you had to go to this school, or get this type of degree, but for me it’s worked out very well. I think to have the veterinary degree with a public health degree is a very strong combination for getting into this type of work.

Uebele: Is there something special that a person must have to be successful in this kind of work that you do? 

Rosenbaum: I would say I like it because I feel like you can be very creative. I think one of the biggest challenges when you go through veterinary school is facing the debt that you’re going to have when you get out of veterinary school. That’s something that I think people should always consider as they’re trying to figure out what path to take. The nice thing about the veterinary degree is it’s very versatile so you can do a lot of different things with it. I can work in small animal practice, I can do research, I can work for government, so usually if one road doesn’t work out I think it’s always nice to have options. So I think getting a degree that could lead to whole different career options is sort of a smart route to take so that you can switch it up if you want to.

Uebele: Can you tell me about a moment in your life or a decision that you made that was crucial in getting you to be where you are in your career today?

Rosenbaum: I think enrolling in the DVM/MPH program was huge in that it really expanded my understanding of human public health. Then between my third and my fourth year in veterinary school I was awarded a Fogarty, which is an NIH global clinical research fellowship, so I went to Peru and lived there for two and a half years and got to conduct my own independent research. That opportunity, in sort of a mentored environment, really helped me understand what it takes to do research and whether or not I liked it, and I loved it, and I think that really sort of formed the path my professional path and career trajectory.

Uebele: Looking back is there anything you would do differently or change, that you would want students now to be aware of?

Rosenbaum: I don’t think so, I mean sometimes I think maybe I should’ve gone to medical school, but I just think that the skills I learned in veterinary school are really necessary to a lot of the field work I do which requires sample collection with animals. Maybe I would’ve thought about trying to attend the cheapest veterinary school I could get into, to lower debt level, but I don’t know.

Uebele: Any final advice you have for students wishing to pursue a similar career?

Rosenbaum: I think it’s okay to not know what you want to do and still progress on a career path. Just keep your mind open to opportunities that present themselves and don’t be afraid to be creative, and do what you love.