Jan Sargeant, director of the Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses, is a professor in the Department of Population Medicine in the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph. Her focus is on public health issues that relate to zoonotic diseases, with an emphasis on zoonotic disease prevention and control, food and water safety and the role of veterinary medicine in public health. Sargeant received her DVM from the University of Guelph and practised as a food animal veterinarian for four years before returning to school at the University of Guelph for her MSc and PhD in epidemiology.