Meet the Members of the White Lab
Heather White, Ph.D.
After an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Indiana University School of Medicine, Heather joined the faculty in the Department of Animal Science at University of Connecticut. She joined the Department of Dairy Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in April, 2013 and since then has taught a variety of classes including the graduate level Ruminant Nutritional Physiology I and II, as well as undergraduate level Comparative Animal Nutrition.
Heather enjoys gardening, knitting, and spending time with her family!
Staff:
Sophia Green
Research Assistant
segreen2@wisc.edu
Sophia is originally from Sun Prairie, WI. She received her bachelor’s degree in Animal Science (2024) and is pursuing her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As a previous undergraduate lab member, she has spent the last four years assisting in the lab’s various graduate and postdoctoral projects in addition to her own independent work. In her new role, Sophia plans to continue to work on the ongoing studies in the lab, and assist in large-scale, collaborative feed efficiency and methane emissions effort across the White and Peñagaricano labs.
Graduate Students:
Barbara Dittrich
M.S. Student
bdittrich@wisc.edu
Co-advised by Dr. Heather White and Dr. Lizzy French
Barbara is from Alma, WI where she grew up on a registered Holstein dairy farm. She received her B.S majoring in Animal Science from the University of Wisconsin- River Falls in May 2024.
Her master’s program focuses on feeding ensiled alternative forages to early lactating cows and measuring productivity and performance parameters, blood metabolites, and enteric and manure greenhouse gas production to determine which diet may provide an improvemment in feed efficiency and nutrient utilization. The goal of this project is to determine if alternative forages can have positive impacts in the use of nutritional side of dairy production.
Outside of work and studies, Barbara enjoys raising livestock, card games, traveling, and trying new things.
Abigail Bowers
M.S. Student
ajbowers2@wisc.edu
Abby is originally from Houston, Texas but has been living in Wisconsin since 2021. Initially, she started University as a pre-nursing student before switching her major after working in a dairy nutrition lab. She received her B.S in Dairy science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in December 2024.
During her master’s program, Abby will be analyzing blood samples to determine the effects of maternal supplementation of choline on calf growth and blood metabolites. Additionally, she will be working with tissue samples to quantify gene expression and protein abundance in adipose tissue to determine nutrient metabolism and activity in high and low feed efficient cows. The goal of this research is to understand tissue level nutrient use to improve efficiency and sustainability.
Outside of her time in the lab, Abby enjoys reading and baking.
Post-Doctorates/Visiting Scholars:
Gabriel Ferreira De Lima Cruz, Ph.D.
Post-Doctoral Research Associate
ferreiradeli@wisc.edu
Gabriel is originally from Paraíba, Brazil. He received his bachelor’s degree in Animal Science (2014-2018) and his master’s degree in Animal Science (2019-2021) from the Federal University of Paraíba. He received his PhD in Animal Science (2021-2024) from the Federal University of Viçosa and completed a one-year internship in Dr. Ferraretto’s Lab at the University of Wisconsin–Madison during his PhD. During this period, he focused most of his research on animal nutrition and the evaluation of the fermentative and microbiological quality of silages for ruminants.
During his postdoctoral training, Gabriel intends to analyze the effects of individual or combined feed additives fed to lactating cows and potentially to transition cows. The goal of this research is to better understand how these additives influence postpartum milk production, metabolism, and biomarkers in dairy cows.
Current Undergraduate Students
Current undergraduate students in the lab include Amelia Anderson, Tyler Diels, Molly Fader, Malachi Guzman, Liam Leuwerke, and Adrianna Villegas. 
Prior undergraduates Sophia Green, Kylie Konyn, and Luke McCoullough with some White Lab members, alumni, and Bucky!
Future goals for these students are to attend veterinary school, graduate school, or a combination of the two! Each student is either working on a grad-student led project or has their own independent project.
White Lab Alumni
MS Graduates
- Frankie Tiberio
- Tawny Chandler
- Claira Seely
- Sophia Kendall
- Erin Kammann
- Grace Praisler
PhD Graduates
- Tawny Chandler
- Kristina Weld
- Rafael Caputo Oliveira
- Ryan Pralle
- Henry Holdorf
- Faith Reyes
- Malia Caputo
Post Docs/Visiting Scholars
- Valentina Caprarulo
- Qian Zhang
- William Brown
- Katie Kennedy
- Usman Arshad
- Rika Fukumori
- Tanya France
- Mariana Paiva Wenzel
Recent alumni and what they are doing now
Rika Fukumori, PhD Dr. Fukumori is from Japan and received her PhD degree from Hiroshima University in 2013. She is employed by Rakuno Gakuen University as an Associate Professor and was in the White lab from October 2023 to September 2024 for her sabbatical leave. Dr. Fukumori investigated the secretion and role of metabolic hormones and gut peptides in dairy cows as they control feed intake and nutrient partitioning to body tissues. She believes that endocrine knowledge can contribute to the understanding and control of perinatal diseases in transition dairy cows and improve feed efficiency. Dr. Fukumori will continue her research program in Japan and will teach classes in the upcoming semester.
