Heather D. S. Walden is an assistant professor at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine. She received her Bachelor of Science (Biology) from the University of Kentucky and her Master of Science (Biology/Genetics) from Appalachian State University before completing a doctorate in parasitology from Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine. She teaches parasitology to students of veterinary medicine during their first, third and fourth years and mentors graduate and veterinary student research. She also directs a diagnostic parasitology laboratory, and works regularly with parasites of exotic and domestic hosts. Her research interests focus on zoonotic parasitic disease, diagnosis and classical parasite biology, modes of transmission and pathogenicity in the definitive host, with particular interest in Angiostrongylus cantonensis. Dr. Walden has led and collaborated on several research projects involving parasites of veterinary and human importance throughout the United States, Mexico, Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands, and Zambia and Senegal, Africa. She is a member of the American Association of Veterinary Parasitologists and American Society of Parasitologists. Dr. Walden is the 2016 recipient of the Zoetis Distinguished Veterinary Teacher Award at the University of Florida.