Christina Doelling

Who is your role model?

My role model is my old boss, mentor, and friend, Lydia Hopper. Lydia is an incredible primatologist and has taught me how to have confidence in myself as a female scientist. I also learned from her how important it is to uplift and support other women in the sciences and I have committed to this in my professional career.

What is the greatest challenge you had to tackle?

I think the greatest challenge I had to tackle was changing my career from one in fine art (I received a BFA in 2012) to scientific research in animal welfare. I had to reach out to lots of people in the field, work very hard, and take every opportunity possible to get to a place in my life where I could apply to a program like the Animal Welfare Program. I learned that folks you may be afraid to reach out to are more than happy to talk about their research and want to help aspiring scientists when they can!

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I hope to be a research professor in animal welfare at a university and have a fantastic cohort of my own like the one I am part of at UBC.