Dr. Chelsea Himsworth is a veterinary pathologist and epidemiologist. She is the BC Regional Director for the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative and a Clinical Associate Professor at the School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia.  

Dr. Himsworth's research and practice is focused on transdisciplinary, One Health approaches to health issues at the interfaces among humans, animals, and the environment. She has a special focus on understanding, monitoring, and mitigating diverse harms associated with urban rats. Dr. Himsworth started the Vancouver Rat Project (vancouverratproject.ca) in 2010 and since that time she and her students have combined a variety of tools and approaches to study rat ecology, the epidemiology of zoonotic pathogens, the mental and physical health threats rats pose to people, municipal rat management policy and programming, and much more.

Dr. Kaylee Byers is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University, a Senior Scientist with the Pacific Institute on Pathogens, Pandemics and Society, and the Deputy Director of the British Columbia node of the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative. She is an interdisciplinary scholar with over a decade of experience working in the field of One Health, which recognizes the interconnected health of people, animals, and the environment.

Dr. Byers received her PhD from the University of British Columbia, where she studied the disease ecology of urban rats in Vancouver. Her work combined genomics, epidemiology, molecular biology, ecological field methods, and qualitative methodologies to explore the complex health and management challenges posed by rats in cities. Outside of research, she is also an active and enthusiastic science communicator.