Patrick Odongo Pithua, DVM, PhD
Profile
Research/Clinical Interests
- Infectious disease epidemiology and emerging zoonotic threats
- Antimicrobial resistance and stewardship
- Global and One Health approaches, including climate-sensitive and wildlife-associated zoonoses
- Epidemiological methods, statistical modeling, and pharmacoepidemiology
- Health services research and implementation science
- Veterinary preventive medicine and population health
- Public health at the human–animal–environment interface
- Applied epidemiology for disease prevention, control, and surveillance
Education
• 2009 – PhD, Veterinary Medicine (Population Medicine/Epidemiology), University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA
• 2004 – MSc, Veterinary Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Royal Veterinary College, University of London, London, UK
• 2003 – DVM, Veterinary Medicine, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
• 2026 – MS, Health Economics & Pharmacoeconomics, Pompeu Fabra University (UPF-Barcelona School of Management), Barcelona, Spain (postdoctoral training)
• 2023 – MS, Applied Health Outcomes Research, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, TX, USA (postdoctoral training)
Biography/Professional Experience
Dr. Patrick Pithua is a veterinary epidemiologist and public health scientist who serves as Visiting Associate Professor of Parasitology in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, where he contributes to the Master of Professional Studies (MPS) program. At Cornell he serves as course leader and instructor for VETMI 7433, Statistics for Surveillance, Diagnostic Test Development, and Efficacy Studies. He brings more than fifteen years of teaching, research, and mentorship across DVM, MPH, and PhD programs, with expertise spanning infectious disease and zoonotic epidemiology, One Health, antimicrobial resistance, and epidemiologic methods at the human–animal–environment interface.
Dr. Pithua earned his DVM from Makerere University in Uganda (2003), an MSc in Veterinary Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the Royal Veterinary College, University of London (2004), and a PhD in Veterinary Medicine with an emphasis in population medicine and epidemiology from the University of Minnesota (2009), where he also completed postdoctoral training in veterinary preventive medicine, epidemiology, and public health. He has since pursued additional graduate training in applied health outcomes research at the University of North Texas Health Science Center and in health economics and Pharmacoeconomics at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona.
Dr. Pithua has held tenured and tenure-track faculty appointments in epidemiology and public health at the University of Missouri and at Virginia Tech and currently holds a concurrent appointment as Associate Professor at Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine. He has also served as a Principal Research Scientist at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy. A Fulbright Scholar and Fulbright Specialist and a two-time Carnegie African Diaspora Fellow, he has led international teaching and capacity-building programs in Uganda and Argentina. He has served as principal or co-investigator on external grants totaling approximately $1.75 million across more than twenty awards, maintains an active peer-reviewed publication record, and is board-eligible with the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine (ACVPM), sitting for certification as a 2027 candidate.