Karla was born and raised in the foothills of the Adirondacks in upstate New York where she developed a curiosity and love for our natural world. During her undergraduate studies at Cornell's CALS, she pursued a biology major with a concentration in cellular and molecular biology and completed an honors thesis studying the IncD inclusion protein of chlamydia in Dr. Marci Scidmore's lab.

Karla joined the inaugural class of Cornell's combined DVM/PhD program in the fall of 2002. During her time in the program, she pursued a mixed small and large animal pathway during her clinical rotations, completed a dissertation on the evolution of canine parvovirus in Dr. Colin Parrish's lab, and developed her pedagogical skills as a future faculty fellow. After earning her veterinary degree, Karla worked part-time for Shelter Outreach Services, supporting their spay/neuter program for animal shelters in the Finger Lakes area.

Karla then completed postdoctoral studies at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, MD, in the laboratories of Drs. David Wenthworth and Suman Das, where she continued studying viral evolution and host switching, as well as genomics, bioinformatics, and microbiome sciences.

Although she enjoyed research, Karla's passion for teaching brought her next to secondary school positions. She taught first at George School, an independent Quaker boarding and day high school in Newtown, PA, where she was a biology teacher and dorm parent. Karla then moved to Sandy, UT and taught middle and upper school science at Waterford School, an independent preK-12 day school. While in UT, Karla also worked as a part-time small animal clinician at Salt Lake Veterinary Services, Mountain Vale Clinic in Taylorsville.

Karla is excited to come full-circle back to Cornell's Department of Microbiology and Immunology to support Foundation Course IV in the fall veterinary curriculum and to teach undergraduates in the spring. In her free time, Karla enjoys spending time with her dogs, being outdoors, collecting and reading books, and solving puzzles.