Dr. Sarah Rhea earned her DVM from Purdue University and then worked in small animal community practice in Indiana before obtained her MPH and PhD in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Following her graduate training, Dr. Rhea served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She subsequently completed CDC’s Preventive Medicine Residency/Fellowship program. Dr. Rhea joined the non-profit research institute, RTI International, in 2016 where she rose to Senior Research Epidemiologist. She began her faculty appointment at NCSU in 2021.