Meet Our Speakers

Dr. Rebecca Wilkes, DVM, Ph.D., DACVM is a board-certified veterinary microbiologist with expertise in virology, molecular diagnostics, and test development. She earned both her DVM (2001) and Ph.D. in Comparative and Experimental Medicine (2007) from the University of Tennessee, specializing in virology and molecular biology.
She has held faculty and diagnostic leadership roles at the University of Tennessee, University of Georgia, and Purdue University, where she led molecular diagnostics at the Indiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory. In June 2025, Dr. Wilkes became director of the University of Kentucky Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and Associate Professor in the Department of Veterinary Science.
Her research focuses on molecular test development, including targeted next-generation sequencing to improve infectious disease detection and syndromic surveillance in animals.