People

Dr. Kevin D. Kohl - Principal Investigator

Kevin is an integrative ecologist, with an emphasis on how interactions with microbes impact the physiology, ecology, and evolution of animal hosts.
Kevin earned a bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Ecology from University of Wisconsin-Madison training with Dr. William Karasov studying the nutritional ecology of nestling songbirds. Next, Kevin completed a PhD in Biology from the University of Utah with Dr. Denise Dearing, studying wild herbivorous rodents, and showing that their gut microbes allow them to consume toxic plants. Kevin then spent a year in Argentina as an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow, studying physiological and microbial adaptations to herbivory in a unique clade of Andean lizards, and additional postdoc training with at Vanderbilt University Dr. Seth Bordenstein, where he investigated the eco-evolutionary pattern known as “phylosymbiosis”. Kevin joined the University of Pittsburgh in 2017 as an Assistant Professor, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2023.

Curriculum Vitae - Updated May 2026
Dr. Kohl's GoogleScholar Page
kkohl[at]pitt.edu

Dr. Emily Hardison - Postdoctoral Researcher

Emily is an NSF-funded Postdoctoral Research Fellow whose research interests include ecological physiology, host-microbe interactions, and conservation biology. Emily is broadly interested in how environmental changes impact the physiology and behavior of aquatic animals. In the Kohl lab, Emily is researching how host-microbe interactions in larval amphibians shape their physiological responses to environmental change.

Website
GoogleScholar Page
emh314[at]pitt.edu

Dr. Rachael Kramp - Postdoctoral Researcher

Rachael's research interests include disease ecology, host-microbe interactions, and evolutionary biology. Rachael is broadly interested in understanding how host-associated microbiomes shape animal behavior and infectious disease transmission dynamics. In the Kohl lab, Rachael is researching how the skin and gut microbiome of guppies could influence host social behavior, host development, parasite resistance, and transmission outcomes.

Jess Diaz - Graduate Student

Jess is interested in exploring the connections between gut microbiome and host health in the context of changing environments. Specifically, Jess is interested in applying gut microbiome research to inform animal management and conservation practices. Jess's research in the Kohl lab focuses on how changes in gut microbial composition associated with artificial rearing practices in Whooping Cranes could potentially lead to adverse health outcomes.

jed213[at]pitt.edu

Allison Suddaby - Graduate Student

Allison is broadly interested in how principles of community ecology apply to host-associated microbiomes. In the Kohl Lab, she studies the role of functional redundancy in shaping microbiome resilience to disturbance, and downstream implications for host health and ecosystem function.

Before joining the Kohl Lab, she studied Lyme disease ecology in Vermont's Green Mountains and investigated the transcriptional profiles of bacterial symbionts across health and disease in the human oral cavity.

José Goyco-Blas - Lab Manager

José has a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science with an emphasis in Environmental Chemistry from the University of Puerto Rico in Aguadilla. José also earned a master’s degree from the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico, where he specialized in Environmental Law and Regulation. José works to support all projects in the Kohl Lab, with specific interests in microbial culturing and environmental sampling.

jfg25[at]pitt.edu

Tabea Schneider - Research Technician

Tabea is a lab technician and Pitt alum, with research interests including conservation biology and behavioral ecology. Tabea is currently interested in exploring how host microbiome influences host-parasite interactions. Tabea's work in the Kohl Lab involves working on the large-scale epidemic experiment, using guppies (Poecelia reticulata) and their ectoparasites, analyzing fish behavior and worm transmission.

tas257[at]@pitt.edu