Dr. Kubala was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs with her th ree sisters, several dogs, rabbits, turtles and fish. Having studied piano since the age of six, she began her undergraduate education studying classical music at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA. She subsequently earned her BS in Biology Magna Cum Laude at Emmanuel College in Boston. She graduated from University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine in 2002 with strong interests in emergency and wildlife medicine.

After veterinary school, she moved overseas where she worked as an emergency veterinarian in London and volunteered her free time as a wildlife veterinarian on various conservation projects throughout Africa. She returned to the United States several years later and found that she truly enjoyed helping the same wild species in exotics practice, working at several exotic animal practices in the Chicagoland area.

To refine her knowledge and skills, Dr. Kubala completed a Masters of Veterinary Medicine (Conservation Medicine) through Murdoch University College of Veterinary Medicine in Perth, Western Australia in collaboration with Gorilla Doctors, UC Davis Wildlife Health Center, Davis, CA, with her dissertation, ‘A literature review of infectious disease in the mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei), blood smear analysis for the eastern gorilla (Gorilla beringei), and collation of biochemistry reference data with preliminary calculation of reference intervals for the species’.

Dr. Kubala was then offered a scholarship to pursue her PhD in Conservation Medicine through the same College of Veterinary Medicine, also in collaboration with Gorilla Doctors. To this end she spent a year in the Democratic Republic of Congo collecting biological samples for her research. After the COVID pandemic subsided, she completed several visiting researcher appointments at the Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit, Smithsonian Museum Support Center, in Washington DC, to analyze her samples. She is currently completing her thesis ‘Health and conservation of eastern Gorillas: A One-Health study of vector-born parasites in humans and highland eastern gorillas in the DRC”.

Dr. Kubala is passionate about providing exceptional emergency and urgent care for exotic species that most veterinarians will not see. As such, she was absolutely thrilled to find that EVS shared this passion and is excited to provide this service to the Chicagoland community.