Mystera Samuelson
Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental, Agricultural & Occupational Health, UNMC College of Public Health
Director, Animal Behavior Core, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research
Mystera Samuelson is an ethologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental, Agricultural & Occupational Health, where her research examines how behavior reveals and shapes welfare and health risk for animals for the people who share their environments and for the biomedical models built from them. Grounded in a One Health framework, her work bridges laboratory neuroscience, field ethology and community-led public health. She leads the CDC-NIOSH–funded project Enhancing the Health and Safety of Range Bison Herd Workers on Tribal Lands, serves as co-investigator on multiple NIH-funded neuroscience studies and is the founding director of UNMC’s Animal Behavior Core.
- PhD: Experimental Psychology (Brain & Behavior), University of Southern Mississippi, 2015
- MS: Natural Resources, University of Idaho, 2012
- BS: Psychology, Montana State University, 2009
- Rigor and validity in behavioral research: strengthening comparative and translational behavioral research by grounding methods in the ecological and evolutionary history of each species.
- Behavioral signatures of disease and exposure: characterizing behavioral and cognitive signatures of congenital and infectious disease and of environmental exposures.
- Community-led research: working with communities as they co-develop assessments of animal behavior, environmental hazards and zoonotic exposure. This work centers people who work with animals as well as those who live alongside them, including households, neighborhoods and communities whose health, livelihoods and food sovereignty are tied to animals and shared environments through farming, ranching, fishing, foraging and food processing. Partners range from Tribal buffalo programs and rural agricultural communities to laboratory animal care staff. The work is guided by a simple principle: people should never have to choose between their culture and their safety.
- Welch, A. M., Reuther, M., Lynch-O’Brien, L., Samuelson, M. M.,* & Cross, S. T.* (2026). Prior knowledge and perceived impacts of tick-borne disease education among Indigenous bison workers at an annual roundtable training. Frontiers in Public Health, 13. (*co-corresponding authors)
- Taraschenko, O., Fox, H. S., Heliso, P., Al-Saleem, F., Dessain, S., Kim, W.-Y., Samuelson, M. M., & Dingledine, R. (2024). Memory loss and aberrant neurogenesis in mice exposed to patient anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antibodies. Experimental Neurology, 378, 114838.
- Samuelson, M. M., Fujiwara, M., Pulis, E. E., Pitchford, J. L., Howard, V. A., & Solangi, M. (2021). A comprehensive evaluation of survival and population growth estimates for bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in the Mississippi Sound, USA, following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Southeastern Naturalist, 20(1), 178–191.
- Lauderdale, L. K., Samuelson, M. M., & Xitco, M. J. (2021). Modern applications of operant conditioning through the training of a beaching behaviour with bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research, 9(2), 81–87. https://doi.org/10.19227/jzar.v9i2.519
- Samuelson, M. M., Pulis, E. E., Ray, C., Arias, C. R., Samuelson, D. R., Mattson, E. E., & Solangi, M. (2020). Analysis of the fecal microbiome in Kemp’s ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys kempii) undergoing rehabilitation. Endangered Species Research, 43, 121–131.
- Research Fellow, Nebraska Strategic Research Institute (2025)
- PIONEER Fellow, College of Public Health (2025–2026)
- Outstanding Researcher Award, Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities (2022)
- Merit Award, UNMC Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research (2021)
- Founding Director, UNMC Animal Behavior Core
- Director, Annual Tribal Bison Worker Safety & Herd Health Roundtable (2021–present)
- Advisory Board Member, UNMC Center for NeuroDevelopmental Disorders
- Member, NSRI Medical Countermeasures and Food, Agriculture & Environment Security work groups