New Faces
FACULT Y
Brandy Close, BS, M.Ed., Ph.D., is the director of curricular affairs, instructional design and academic technologies, as well as a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences. Originally from Stillwater, she earned her BS and M.Ed. degrees from Texas Christian University and her Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University. Dr. Close’s research interests include formative assessment and feedback, educational technology and trends, and curriculum and instruction.
Andreza Conti-Patara, DVM, MSc, MBA, Ph.D., is an associate professor of small animal emergency and critical care in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences. Originally from São Paulo, Brazil, she earned her DVM degree from São Paulo State University, as well as a master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of São Paulo. Conti-Patara’s research interests include sepsis, trauma, electrolytes disorders, and analgesia in critically ill patients. In 2019, she completed a residency in small animal emergency and critical care at Washington State University. She has worked with critically ill patients since 2006 when she founded Vet Support, an emergency and critical care clinic in Brazil. Before coming to OSU, Dr. Conti-Patara worked as a small animal emergency and critical care clinical instructor at the University of North Carolina.
Xufang Deng, Ph.D., MS, is an assistant professor in the Department of Physiological Sciences. Originally from a small village in the southwestern part of China, he spent the last 10 years living in Chicago. Deng earned his Ph.D. in veterinary virology at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing and an MS degree in Bioinformatics from Loyola University Chicago. His research interests mainly focus on understanding how coronaviruses infect hosts and cause diseases, specifically investigating what and how viral and host components dictate coronaviral infections and pathogenesis in different organs.
Sudhakar Jha, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Physiological Sciences. Originally from Raiyam, Bihar, in India, he earned his Ph.D. from the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. He did his post-doctoral training at the University of Virginia. His research focuses on understanding the regulation of chromatin-remodeling complexes and their role in tumorigenesis. Specifically, he studies virus-induced cancers, along with breast, colorectal and blood cancers. Before joining OSU, Jha was the principal investigator at the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore.
Jonjo Reece, DVM, is a clinical assistant professor in small animal internal medicine in the Veterinary Clinical Sciences Department. Originally from the island of Barbados, Reece completed his bachelor’s degree and DVM at the University of the West Indies. After teaching several years, he completed a rotating internship at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan, followed by a small animal internal medicine residency at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. His current areas of interest include hepatology, endocrinology and infectious diseases.
O K L A H O M A S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y 7
