Jenny Hutchison
BVetBiol(Dist) BVSc(Hons I) MS PhD Dip ACVIM(LAM) CertLang(French) - Director
Jenny is an experienced Australian epidemiologist whose interests in large animals were apparent at an early age and led to veterinary studies at the University of Queensland. After graduating, she spent nearly twelve years in the United States, first in Florida, then in Colorado. Most of her time with the University of Florida was spent working with large (1000-2000 cow dairies), focusing on reproduction, production medicine, field surgery and herd health. In an effort to improve her understanding of individual animal medicine, Jenny then moved to Colorado for a residency program in Food Animal Medicine at Colorado State University (CSU). Here her focus broadened to include camelids (llamas and alpacas). Jenny's time in Colorado lengthened as she undertook a PhD program in epidemiology. Whilst at CSU, Jenny worked on the development and analysis of many research projects. She is the author or co-author of numerous scientific publications stemming from this work. After returning to Australia, Jenny worked with the Department of Agriculture in Western Australia for two years, focusing on issues related to zoning for animal disease freedom, and developing skills in quantitative risk analysis. She moved to Canberra to join the Australian Government Department of Agriculture in December 2001 and spent the next four years extending her expertise in applied risk analysis and surveillance, and indulging (a little) her interests in teaching and research, with activities in both Australia and Asia.
Jenny joined AusVet Animal Health Services in April 2005 and became a Director of the company in 2010. She has been the National Surveillance and Information Coordinator for Animal Health Australia since 2005. Her assumption of this role coincided with the redevelopment of the database and user interface for Australia's National Animal Health Information System, and her interests in data collection, management, analysis and reporting developed along with the system.
Jenny is particularly interested in capacity building activities within the region and has delivered many training workshops on topics including basic epidemiological principles, surveillance, risk analysis, geographical information systems for animal health information, and introduction to the use of R software for data analysis and presentation.
Jenny graduated from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Veterinary Science with First Class Honours in 1986. Earlier, she had developed expertise in laboratory research and techniques by completing a Bachelor of Veterinary Biology (with Distinction) in 1984. She was awarded a Master of Science (Clinical Studies) in 1992, and a Doctor of Philosophy (Epidemiology) in 1997, both from Colorado State University. In addition, she became a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (Large Animal Medicine) in 1995. In 2005, Jenny completed a Certificate of Languages (French) from Macquarie University (Australia).
