GABRIELA MACAY
Hi! My name is Gabriela, and I am a PhD student working with Dr. Bromfield at the University of Florida. I am originally from El Salvador. I have a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Sciences from the Pan-American Agricultural School “Zamorano”, situated in Honduras.
“Zamorano” it’s an international university that offers the opportunity to become a professional leader with skills and values. I consider a “mindset” institution that combines its fourth pillars: academic excellence, learning by doing, values and character, and a multicultural campus with students from different nationalities. “Learning by doing” consists of hands-on work modules such as dairy production, beef production, animal biotechnology laboratory, and among others. Because of the experience I got working with livestock I decided to do my graduation project in the beef teaching unit, testing two different mineral-salt in daily weight gain in weaned Brahman's calves. Therefore, my interest in livestock production began.
After I graduated, I came to the USA for an internship in a large commercial farm, called “North Florida Holstein” situated in Florida. In the beginning, it was an intimidating experience because of my language limitations and physical skills, but at the same time the most challenging and valuable experience I have. During this internship, I was able to work in newborn calf care, maternity barn, hospital barn, heifer management, and herd health management. This dairy farm has outstanding reproductive management, they allowed me to work with Artificial Insemination, Ultrasonography, and Embryo Transfer. I enjoyed this experience and helped me to develop a desire to advance in my career conducting research.
Hence, I started an internship at Animal Sciences at the University of Florida in 2019, working on a large project in a commercial farm testing a new drug for the prevention of metritis. As a result, this internship opened the doors and strengthened my eagerness to become a graduate student. I completed my MS thesis in 2022 and stayed in the Bromfield laboratory to pursue my PhD. For my thesis project, I am working to determine the potential effects of seminal plasma at conception on embryo development and subsequent offspring performance.
MS Thesis, 2022 - Effects of seminal plasma on the endometrial transcriptome and early fetal development.