Dr. William "Bill" Severud, Principal Investigator

​My aim is to conduct research that informs land and wildlife management. I address questions related to large mammal ecology, especially involving population dynamics, predator-prey interactions, and wildlife health.

I teach courses in wildlife management, large mammal ecology, tribal fish and wildlife management, wildlife disease, and population dynamics in the Natural Resource Management Department at South Dakota State University in Brookings, South Dakota, USA.

Erica Lafferty, MS student

Erica is a graduate of Oglala Lakota College where she began researching heavy metal contamination in soils, plants, and bison hair and dung on Cheyenne River Indian Reservation. She has expanded that project into a graduate project involving more bison tissue types and reservations with support from South Dakota Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).

Jeff Tillery, MS student

Jeff most recently worked as a biological science technician for Badlands National Park before joining the lab. His project will investigate aspects of bighorn sheep/pneumonia ecology in Badlands National Park and Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Sean Ryder, MS student

Sean is a lifelong resident of Wyoming, where he worked for both environmental consulting firms and the state on a variety of wildlife-related projects. His MS research will focus on Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae infections in bighorn sheep in Badlands National Park.

Helen Krueger, MS student

Helen is a graduate of Western Washington University and has a varied background in fish, avian, and ungulate ecology. Her project will investigate white-tailed deer and mule deer fawn interactions in sympatric and allopatric populations across South Dakota. 

Lab alumni

Michele Lovara, MS 2025

Michele works for Working Dogs for Conservation, where she is a Canine Field Specialist. She has worked with dogs on many projects, including a project that she has turned into her MS research: using dogs to detect Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae in domestic and bighorn sheep.

Anna Weesies, MS 2025

Anna is a graduate of Michigan State University and worked as a conservation dog handler for Find It! Detection Dogs. Anna's project examined moose calf survival and cause-specific mortality and moose mineral lick use in Grand Portage Indian Reservation in northeastern Minnesota. She is currently working for Grand Portage.