Dr. Staiger joined TAMUK in January 2022 and currently holds the rank of Assistant Professor. She grew up in a Navy family and spent her formative years in Japan, California, and Maryland. Her family started breeding and showing Tennessee Walking Horses while she was in high school, which sparked her interest in animal science and genetics. She earned her BS in Animal Science and MS in Animal Breeding and Genetics from Oklahoma State University. In 2015, she earned a Ph.D. from Cornell University in Animal Science, with an emphasis on equine genetics and neurobiology. She continued as a postdoctoral assistant at Cornell University (2015, 2017-2019) working on dairy cattle, dog, goat, sheep, and chicken genetic projects, and as a postdoctoral fellow at Uppsala University (2016) working on equine genetics and genomics projects. In 2019, she joined the faculty at Auburn University as a Visiting Assistant Professor where she taught Animal Breeding and established research in equine and beef cattle genomics. The goal of her research is to utilize advancements in genome sequencing and SNP genotyping technology, in combination with innovations in biotechnology and bioinformatics, to better understand the genomic variants contributing to the health, production, and behavior of livestock animals.
