Chair
Sebastián Demyda-Peyrás
Departamento de Genética, Universidad de Cordoba, España
Cordoba, Spain

Term of service (1st, 2025-2029)

Sebastián Demyda-Peyrás is an Argentine researcher currently serving as a professor at the veterinary school of the University of Córdoba, Spain. His laboratory is deeply engaged in applied equine genomics, specifically looking at performance markers in Polo and Peruvian Paso horses, as well as managing inbreeding depression through modern genomic strategies. Demyda-Peyrás states, “I am honored to serve as chair of this committee. My vision for this tenure is to expand the visibility of the incredible work being done by our colleagues worldwide on equine genomics. I aim to take our technical achievements and disseminate them to a broader audience, increasing engagement and sparking a genuine interest in the future of equine genomics.

Co-Chair
Tomasz Zabek
National Research Institute of Animal Production
Balice, Poland

Term of service (2nd, 2023-2027)

Tomasz Zabek is an associate professor at the National Research Institute of Animal Production in Poland. His research focuses on the functional role of DNA-methylation variation in noncoding regions of the genomes of various mammalian species, with a particular emphasis on the horse.

Member
Robin Everts
Etalon Dx
San Diego, CA United States

Term of service (1st, 2023-2027)

Robin Everts, PhD, is the head of Research & Development at Etalon Equine Genetics and brings over 20 years of molecular and genetics experience. He graduated with an MSc. in Animal Sciences from Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands in 1995. He received a PhD from the Department of Veterinary Medicine, Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands in 2000 for his thesis on genetic research in dogs. He was a postdoc and visiting assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign from 2000-2007 doing research in embryo/fetal functional genomics in cattle. From 2007 - 2014 he worked at Sequenom Biosciences, Inc developing their overall assay portfolio and their Pharmacogenetics program. In 2014 he joined Agena Bioscience, Inc., San Diego, CA, where he led the Pharmacogenetics effort globally and developed the original DNA panel for Etalon Equine Genetics. As of early 2023 he moved back into animal genetics, one of his passions. He is on the scientific Advisory Board of Etalon Equine Genetics and ADx Health.

Member
Felipe Avila
Veterinary Genetics Laboratory - UC Davis
Davis, CA United States

Term of service (2nd, 2025-2029)

Member
Samantha Brooks
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL United States

Term of service (2nd, 2025–2029)

Member
Monika Stefaniuk-szmukier
University of Agriculture in Krakow
, United States

Term of service (1st, 2025–2029)

Monika Stefaniuk-Szmukier is a professor at the National Research Institute of Animal Production (Department of Animal Molecular Biology) in Kraków, Poland. She holds a PhD and habilitation in agricultural sciences, with specialization in animal science. Her research centers on equine genetics and genomics, including performance traits, inherited diseases, population diversity, and gene expression under physical effort. She has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications, and her research involves advanced genomic approaches, including SNP genotyping, GWAS, whole-genome sequencing, RNA-seq, and ddPCR. She has investigated numerous performance-related genes in Arabian and native Polish horses. She has also contributed to studies on congenital disorders (e.g., SCID, CA, LFS, CSNB), metabolic syndrome, and genetic adaptation to training in racehorses. Stefaniuk-Szmukier has collaborated internationally, including teams from Austria, the United States, and the Middle East and North Africa, and contributed to high-impact studies. She is an active participant in international equine genomics projects and seeks to contribute her expertise to the ISAG Horse Genetics and Genomics Standing Committee by supporting standardization, data sharing, and cross-breed genetic evaluation. Stefaniuk-Szmukier is a reviewer for scientific publications in prestigious journals in genetics and animal science and serves as a member of the Polish Genetic Society (PTG), the Polish Society of Animal Science (PTZ), the European Federation of Animal Science (EAAP), and the Polish Arabian Horse Breeders Association (PZHKA), as well as a participant in the Horse Genome Workshop. She is also a member of editorial boards of renowned scientific journals. In addition to laboratory-based research, Stefaniuk-Szmukier is actively engaged in fieldwork and has hands-on experience in Arabian horse management, including involvement in the practical operation and genetic monitoring of a purebred Arabian stud.

Member
Eleonora Cappelletti
IRCCS San Matteo Hospital Foundation
Pavia, Italy

Term of service (1st, 2025–2029)

Eleonora Cappelletti, PhD, is a researcher at the IRCCS San Matteo Hospital Foundation (Italy), working in collaboration with the University of Pavia. She earned her MSc in molecular biology and genetics (2015) and her PhD in genetics, molecular and cellular biology (2019) from the University of Pavia. During her PhD, she was a visiting student at Ludwig Maximilians Universität (Munich, Germany). Her work focuses on centromere biology and genome evolution, with particular interest in centromeric chromatin organization in equids. She is a member of the equine community of the Functional Annotation of Animal Genomes (FAANG) Consortium, the Equine Pangenome International Consortium, and the Ruminant Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) Consortium.