Taegan McMahon

Taegan McMahon is an Associate Professor of Biology at Connecticut College, where she joined in 2020. Her work focuses on conservation disease ecology, particularly the impacts of anthropogenic influences, climate change, and urbanization on wildlife diseases.

Her educational background includes:

• B.S. from Bates College
• Ph.D. from the University of South Florida

McMahon employs a multidisciplinary approach integrating community, urban, and vector ecology; invertebrate biology; entomology; parasitology; and molecular biology. Her primary research centers on Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), a pathogenic fungus responsible for declines in over 500 amphibian species globally. She investigates Bd's ecology across biological scales—from individual experiments to ecosystem surveys—to develop conservation strategies like wildlife vaccines.

McMahon is dedicated to mentoring undergraduate researchers and has built a diverse lab team. She has secured major research funding:

• National Institutes of Health grant: Investigating non-amphibian hosts and vectors of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis
• National Science Foundation grant: Development of a wildlife vaccine against Bd

Her work leverages global fieldwork, molecular lab techniques, and data-driven modeling through collaborations with an extensive research network to address complex ecological challenges.