Dr. Rafael is currently an Associate Professor of One Health in the Department of Public Health Sciences and CIPHER at UNC Charlotte. He is the PI of several research training capacity building projects, and he is engaged in research and teaching focuses on ticks and tick-borne diseases and One Health. Over the last 11 years his research has focused on zoonotic diseases, with emphasis in the epidemiology of vector-borne and transboundary infectious diseases, One Health, molecular detection and characterization of novel zoonotic infectious diseases. As a native of Recife, Brazil and one who has worked in several states across Brazil, he is well positioned to lead the OHGA Brazil activities.
