Julie C. Ellis, PhD

My current research interests lie at the intersection of wildlife disease ecology, One Health, and human-wildlife coexistence in urban landscapes. Since joining Penn Vet in 2018, I have initiated and co-directed the Pennsylvania Wildlife Futures Program (WFP), a partnership between Penn Vet and the Pennsylvania Game Commission that builds sustainable infrastructure for wildlife disease surveillance and research across the Commonwealth, including chronic wasting disease diagnostics and tick-borne pathogen studies in white-tailed deer. As Associate Director of the One Health@Penn Research Community, I work to bridge veterinary, ecological, and public health perspectives on shared health threats among wildlife, domestic animals, and people.

I currently lead the Accessing Urban Nature Initiative (AUNI), launched in 2025. AUNI is a Philadelphia-based research program studying urban wildlife populations and residents’ perceptions of and interactions with the wild animals living alongside them. It combines motion-triggered trail cameras, acoustic monitoring, and direct community engagement to pursue this work. Current AUNI projects include a citywide camera-trap network, bioacoustic surveys of urban soundscapes, a study of mange in urban fox populations, and a survey of residents’ attitudes toward urban wildlife. This work is grounded in the conviction that biodiversity conservation and human well-being are intertwined, and that rigorous ecological research must be paired with community partnerships to deliver benefits to both humans and animals. Together, this body of work, spanning regional wildlife disease surveillance, urban ecology, and community science, reflects my sustained commitment to understanding where wild and human lives converge, and to building the systems needed to manage that relationship responsibly.

Ahyong, V., P. Ayscue, R. Gowen, N. Spottiswoode, C. E. Alex, E. Anis, D. P. Beiting, M.L. Gibison, S. S. Greening, L. Keatts, R. S. Larsen, E. A. Miller, B. C. Niewinski, R. B. Gagne, C.M. Tato, J. C. Ellis, and L. A. Murphy. In Press. A Wildlife Health Outbreak Response Table-top Exercise for Pandemic Preparedness Planning. Health Security.

Greening, S.S., J. Nelson, J. C. Ellis. 2026. The Shared Wildlife Health Information System (SWHIS): An Online Case Management System to Support Wildlife Management. Animals 2026, 16(14), 2180; DOI: 10.3390/ani16142180

Greening, S.S., Pascarosa, L.R., Munster, A.L. Gagne, R.B., Ellis, J.C. 2025. Climate change as a wildlife health threat: a scoping review. BMC Vet Res 21, 60. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12917-025-04516-2

Greening SS, Ellis JC, Lewis NL, Needle DB, Tato CM, Richards BJ, Knowles S, Shearn-Bochsler V, Miller J, Grear DA, Lorch JM, Blehert DS, Burrell C, Murphy LA, Miller EA, Ogbunugafor CB, Ayala AJ, Mwakibete L, Kirchgessner M, Casey C, Barton E, Yabsley MJ, Anis E, Gagne RB, Klein P, Driscoll C, Sykes C, Poppenga R, Nemeth NM. 2025. An Enigmatic Wild Passerine Mortality Event in the Eastern United States. Vet. Sci. 12, 48. https://doi.org/10.3390/vetsci12010048

Mwakibete L, Greening SS, Kalantar K, Ahyong V, Anis E, Miller EA, Needle DB, Oglesbee M, Thomas WK, Sevigny JL, Gordon LM, Nemeth NM, Ogbunugafor CB, Ayala AJ, Faith SA, Neff N, Detweiler AM, Baillargeon T, Tanguay S, Simpson SD, Murphy LA, Ellis JC, Tato CM, Gagne RB. 2024. Metagenomics for pathogen detection during a wildlife mortality event in songbirds. Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 60(2), 362-374.

Silveira, G., J. Frair, L.A. Murphy, J.C. Ellis, D. Needle, S. A. Cunningham, A. Watson, A. Facka, P. Tate, S. Webb, Kim Royar, C. Bernier, T. Keller and K. Schuler. 2024. Drivers of anticoagulant rodenticide exposure in fishers (Pekania pennanti) across the northeastern United States. Front. Ecol. Evol., Sec. Population, Community, and Ecosystem Dynamics
Volume 12 https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2024.1304659

Didier, A., M. Bourner, G. Kleks, A. Zolty, B. Kumar, T. Nichols, K. Durynski, S. Bender, M. Gibison, L. Murphy, J.C. Ellis, D.W. Dong, A. Kashina. 2024. Prospective fecal microbiomic biomarkers for chronic wasting disease. Microbiol Spectr. 2024 Feb 1:e0375022. doi: 10.1128/spectrum.03750-22. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38299851.

Facka, A., J. Frair, T. Keller, E. Miller, L. Murphy, J.C. Ellis. 2023. Spatial patterns of anticoagulant rodenticides in three species of medium-sized carnivorans in Pennsylvania. Canadian Journal of Zoology. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2023-0131.

Mallikarjun A, Swartz B, Kane SA, Gibison M, Wilson I, Collins A, Moore MB, Charendoff I, Ellis J, Murphy LA, Nichols T, Otto CM. Canine detection of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in laboratory and field settings. Prion. 2023 Dec;17(1):16-28. doi: 10.1080/19336896.2023.2169519. PMID: 36740856; PMCID: PMC9904315.

Mwakibete, L., S. Greening, K. Kalantar, V. Ahyong, E. Anis, E.A. Miller, D.B. Needle, M. Oglesbee, W.K. Thomas, J.L. Sevigny, L.M. Gordon, N.M. Nemeth, C. B. Ogbunugafor, A.J. Ayala, S.A. Faith, N. Neff, A.M. Detweiler, T. Baillargeon, S. Tanguay, S.D. Simpson, L.A. Murphy, J.C. Ellis, C.M. Tato, R.B. Gagne. 2023. Metagenomics for pathogen detection during a wildlife mortality event in songbirds bioRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.06.20.545358

Zeliff, H., J.C. Ellis, G. Turner, A. Di Salvo, A. Barnard, and E. Anis. 2023. Surveillance of bats in the United States for SARS CoV-2 and other coronaviruses. Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine. J. of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine, 53(4):811-816.