Jo is currently a doctoral student in the human evolutionary sciences program of the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

With the Fulbright US Student Research Program, she will be working with scholars at Universitas Nasional to conduct her fieldwork at Tuanan Research Station in Central Kalimantan. Her research examines the relationship between nutritional intake, overall health and inflammation, and gastrointestinal parasite infection in Bornean orangutans living in a peat swamp habitat. She hopes her research will elucidate these relationships in a way that will aid in the understanding of orangutan health in ways that can help future conservation efforts.

Jo loves to explore the outdoors and is passionate about primate conservation and research, having worked with 12 different nonhuman primate species. She is thrilled for this opportunity with Fulbright to pursue these interests in Indonesia.

Previously, she earned her master’s degree in anthropology from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, with a background in primatology, and bachelor’s degree in anthropology from The University of Iowa.