Guy Palmer: His quest for better animal and human health

Guy Palmer started working in veterinary medicine as a freshman at Kansas State University, where he landed a part-time job in a rabies research lab in 1973. His role: grunt work for which many students might not have had the stomach.

Palmer picked up packages containing animal heads⁠-dogs, cats, cows, horses, skunks⁠-at the local bus station, then sawed them open back at the lab. He removed and sliced into the brains, placing matter onto slides which he prepped for doctors to diagnose.

"I was only 17, so I didn't know a lot about infectious disease or anything else, but I was interested in rabies and how it was transferred from animals to humans," Palmer says. "That was the a-ha moment that took me from being a pretty vague biology student to wanting to do something very specific in terms of a career."

Five decades later, Palmer, now a world-renowned researcher with a deep dedication to improving human and animal health⁠-particularly in low-income countries⁠-reflects on his long career. Fighting rabies in east Africa. Founding a school for global health. Crafting strategies for combatting the COVID-19 pandemic in Whitman County and at Washington State University.

Palmer retired at the end of November 2025 after more than 40 years at WSU⁠-first as a resident, doctoral student, and post-doctoral fellow, then as a professor and program leader. He credits supportive colleagues and administrators throughout his career for giving him time and space to collaborate, create, and explore.

"They were really open to letting you take risks and try new things," says Palmer ('84 PhD Vet. Microbiol. & Pathology), the founding director of the Paul G. Allen School for Global Health and a Regents Professor Emeritus of pathology and infectious disease. "That's a continual thread through my career at WSU. I've been the recipient of the support from really great leaders and a culture of yes. If you think you can do it, they let you take the risk."

In early October, Palmer was honored at the College of Veterinary Medicine Celebration of Excellence in Seattle. In addition, the new Dr. Guy Palmer Fund in Global Health, created by WSU Regent Howard Wright III ('77 For. Lang. and Lit.) and wife Katherine Janeway, Palmer's longtime friends, will support the work of WSU field scientists in Guatemala, one of ten countries in which the Allen School for Global Health has a presence.

"Howard is not only a good friend but is 100 percent responsible for connecting me with scientists at the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala," Palmer says. "That connection-and his decades long passion for improving lives in Guatemala-truly launched WSU's public health commitment there. That he and Kate committed to support the program through creating the fund is deeply meaningful to me and will continue to catalyze new programs there in years to come."

At retirement, Palmer was WSU's senior director of global health, chair of WSU Global Health-Kenya, and president of Global Animal Health-Tanzania. His interest in rabies from his teen years continues as Palmer serves as executive director of Rabies Free Africa, a WSU program committed to ending human deaths due to rabies.

Rabies vaccinations have been mandated in the United States since the 1950s. However, up to 159,000 people die from rabies around the world each year, mostly in Africa and Asia, Palmer says. And 99 percent of those deaths are caused by dogs.

"There's no reason for people to die of rabies," Palmer says. "That a child dies of rabies anywhere in the world is not only tragic but just ridiculous. There's a very effective vaccine."

In the Kansas State lab as an undergraduate, Palmer was earning $1.90 an hour-and receiving priceless mentorship from Harry Anthony, director of the veterinary diagnostic laboratory. "I wasn't that interested in cutting open animal heads per se, although the gruesome part of it didn't bother me at all," Palmer recalls. "Even though my job was pretty limited, (Anthony) would show me how things worked, and the whole process interested me. It was like a (college) course."

Palmer worked in the rabies lab for two years, then moved into microbiology testing, "which was a better job only because I got a chair. I could sit down. In the rabies lab, I didn't have a chair."

He graduated with a biology degree in 1977 and veterinary degree in 1980. Then, he moved across the country for his first stint at WSU, where he completed a residency in pathology and laboratory medicine, studied tick-borne conditions and illnesses, earned his doctoral degree in infectious diseases, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship.

He chose Pullman because "WSU was way ahead of the curve of almost all veterinary schools at the time. They were doing research in infectious disease that was way above what other places were doing. It was a really dynamic place."

Palmer says James B. "Jim" Henson ('64 PhD Vet. Microbiol. & Pathology), chair of veterinary pathology and the first director of the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases in Nairobi, Kenya, and other established that culture.

Travis McGuire ('68 PhD Vet. Sci.), one of Palmer's most influential professors for his doctoral program, "really created an exciting environment at WSU that combined rigorous science and international impact. There was open exchange of ideas and concepts, and I loved the non-hierarchal approach to science. It really inspired my interest in research. I was also really inspired by the fact that research could change lives."

Says McGuire, "Guy is a great example of excellence at every level of his career, including as a graduate student, faculty member, collaborator, and in his work to establish and direct the Allen School of Global Health. He was fun to work with, and I am very proud of his accomplishments and grateful for his friendship."

Palmer also credits Henson and McGuire with creating a connection with east Africa, a connection that continues to exist today. Palmer made his first trip to Nairobi, Kenya, in 1985.

"It was the first time I could really see this direct link between animal health and human poverty and malnutrition," he says. "People live so close to animals there. I saw this real interaction between people and the animals they depend on for their family's well-being (such as) the need to sell them to pay for their kids' school. This lightbulb went on: This is what I want to do."

Palmer's first full-time faculty job took him to the University of Florida, where he taught in the Department of Comparative and Experimental Pathology, and he jumped at the chance to conduct research in Zimbabwe. "It was a great entry-level position for me." But, Palmer says, "I wanted to come back to the West."

He returned to Pullman in 1988 to run a research lab and teach microbiology and immunology. Palmer remained at WSU until his retirement.

"I was ecstatic not only about the university but for the environment that is the Northwest," says Palmer, the son of an Air Force pilot who moved around a lot as a kid. He came of age in Kansas, playing baseball and dreaming of making it to the major leagues. "But I couldn't hit a curve ball," he says. "And you know what happens when you can't hit a curve ball? You see a lot of curve balls."

When he wasn't playing baseball, he was doing other outdoorsy stuff-fishing for walleye, canoeing, and, later, skiing, mountain climbing, and whitewater rafting. "I was very interested in mountains and wilderness and adventuring."

He first saw and became enamored with mountains when he was about 5 years old, traveling near Bend, Oregon, with his family. Even as a young boy, he instantly "knew that's where I wanted to be. I saw the Cascades, and I was determined to climb a mountain. It just didn't happen until many years later."

Mountaineering became a lifelong sport. Palmer has since climbed mountains across Washington state as well as in the Argentinian Andes, where he scaled Mount Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the western hemisphere. He's climbed Denali once, Kilimanjaro twice, and other peaks.

He also climbed in Switzerland, where he was a senior research fellow at the Institute of Pathology at the University of Bern from 1995 to 1996. He calls it "a pivotal point" in his career. It's there he discovered that an infectious agent can infect a cell and control its master regulator, creating a more hospitable environment for the infectious organisms to grow in. For this and other accomplishments, he was awarded an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Bern in 2011.

After a research stint at Spain's University of Zaragoza from 2004 to 2005, Palmer returned to WSU and, with his colleague Terry McElwain ('86 PhD Vet. Sci.), Regents Professor Emeritus and former dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine, began to conceive of a program that would expand WSU's global health reach and improve the lives of animals and humans worldwide. Late WSU President Elson S. Floyd championed what would eventually become the Paul G. Allen School for Global Health.

"It was a dramatic time," Palmer recalls. "It was during the Great Recession-not a great time to try to raise money. We definitely started from zero. We had no faculty. We had no building. We had to go out and share our vision and hope it resonated with philanthropic leaders."

When the Gates Foundation reached out to set up a meeting, Palmer says, "We assumed they were having us over to tell us thanks but no thanks." While waiting for the meeting to begin, Palmer accidentally spilled the coffee he was getting from a machine. "Basically, I was down on my hands and knees, wiping up coffee off the floor, when they walked in," Palmer recalls. Despite the awkward start, it ended up being good news: The Gates Foundation pledged $25 million. More than 300 other donors pitched in, as well.

But more money was needed to make the vision a reality. In 2010, Palmer recalls, "I was on my way to Ethiopia, and I got a call from Elson. He said, (Microsoft cofounder) 'Paul Allen has agreed to meet with us, so can you come back to Seattle?' I had just arrived in Bern. I had a pretty sleepless night. I turned around and flew back to Seattle. I get to Seattle, and the meeting's canceled. I fly back to Pullman, and the meeting's back on for the next day.

"You had one shot at it, and it had to resonate with Paul. Fortunately for us, he had great interest in Africa, which we didn't really know at the time. So we presented to Paul. He asked a couple of questions, and he left. That was it. And he made the decision to support the school."

Allen (x'74) gave $26 million for the school, which now employs 23 scientists on four continents. Their research focuses on infectious disease surveillance, antimicrobial resistance, and viral emergence. The largest programs are in Tanzania and Kenya, where the Nairobi office has a staff of about 150 and the school has partnered with the University of Nairobi to offer a joint doctoral program.

Since his first trip to Africa in 1985 , Palmer's been back 40 or 50 times. "I have lost count," says Palmer, who's worked in Zimbabwe as well as east Africa, mostly Kenya and Tanzania, for forty years. "I really saw that the research had the potential to make a difference, and that's the sweet spot I found in global health and in working in Africa. It really resonated with me. I could bring together two things I was very passionate about: rigorous research and improving people's lives."

Palmer cut back on teaching during the last two decades. But, "I can remember being in Pullman, grabbing a stack of papers to grade, going to Zimbabwe for a week's worth of research, and grading papers on an overnight flight."

Rabies Free Africa grew out of a concentrated effort called the Afya Serengeti Project, which started in 1996. The name change reflects the more expansive goal of the WSU-led effort, says Palmer, who became director in 2016, a year after he stepped down from Allen School leadership. Through the program, some 300 to 1,000 dogs are vaccinated per day.

Early detection of and response to disease outbreaks have been the focus of the school since it was founded in 2007. When it came to rabies in Africa, Palmer says, "We had the tools. We just needed to develop the approaches to implement them in a challenging environment."

In 2020, with the onslaught of the pandemic , WSU relied on Palmer's expertise, designating him chief science advisor for the university's COVID-19 response. He and his team helped turn the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory into a COVID-19 testing lab for WSU students and Palouse residents⁠-about 100,000 people in all.

"After a lifetime of studying infectious disease, it was a great opportunity to be able to apply academic knowledge to something that had day-to-day impacts," Palmer says. "It was scientifically fascinating to learn in real time, not out of a textbook. There was no textbook on this. We had never really seen anything like it: an entire global population in which no one had immunity to this virus.

"I'd be up at four in the morning, reading the latest papers and the latest data on transmissions, then have meetings by seven with our medical community, trying to come up with the best possible plan."

Palmer coordinated COVID-19 testing on campus, wastewater testing at campus housing and Pullman schools, transmission and other research, and vaccine storage for Eastern Washington. He also starred in a video series explaining how vaccines work and encouraging people to get vaccinated.

"If you had told me that people would transmit a respiratory virus before they ever showed symptoms, like coughing and sneezing, I would have said, 'That's not really likely.' It was a very unusual situation," Palmer says. "WSU did a good job of stepping up and serving as a regional public health resource. I'm really proud of how we responded and to have played a significant role in that."

Palmer is succeeded as Allen School for Global Health director by Viveka Vadyvaloo, the school's first faculty member, and Tom Kawula, former school director, as WSU's senior director of global health.

"It takes drive, intellect, insight, vision, risk-taking, and charisma to develop successful programs in academia, particularly at a level beyond the individual successful faculty member. But it is rare to find all those characteristics in one individual," McElwain says.

"Guy has them all and used them all to develop programs not only in his own research field but also at the college and university level," he continues. "His dedication to WSU can be appreciated best in knowing that countless recruiting attempts at many prestigious academic institutions and nonprofits were ultimately unsuccessful. He is a Coug through and through."

Palmer and wife Dianne (Ritchie) Palmer ('81 MS Phys. Ed.), assistant coach for women's gymnastics from 1979 to 1986, plan to stay in Pullman in retirement and keep a full calendar: skiing, traveling-back to Switzerland as well as Argentina, Colombia, Peru, and other Spanish-speaking countries-climbing, kayaking, consulting, and continuing with Rabies Free Africa as executive director.

To date, more than 3 million rabies vaccines have been administered in Kenya and Tanzania through the program. The goal is to eliminate rabies in dogs worldwide by 2030. And, Palmer says, "We're at an inflection point."

"I'm very appreciative of the opportunities I had at WSU and the people I worked with and the confidence that the efforts I'm most proud of are going to continue," Palmer says. "It feels good knowing the things I care about will be cared for by really great people."

Web exclusive

Friends and colleagues reflect on Guy Palmer and his career

From the archives

Superbugs : In hospitals and at home, it's back to basics to combat ever-evolving, drug-resistant microbes. (Winter 2018)

Old remedy: Veterinarians use familiar methods to eliminate the deadliest infectious disease known to humanity. Rabies. (Summer 2017)

360-degree video of vaccinating dogs to eliminate rabies (narration by Guy Palmer; Summer 2017)

The deadly cough: The lab of Viveka Vadyvaloo explores plague, the persistent flea-borne disease that has troubled humanity for centuries. (Winter 2010) Of honor and friendship< /a>: Terry McElwain and Guy Palmer, good friends and one of the most successful partnerships in WSU history (Spring 2010) Masters of Disguise : Guy Palmer and Terry McElwain hunt for pathogens that cause debilitating livestock diseases. (Summer 2009)