Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Alabama
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

I am a research ecologist and statistician who uses advanced quantitative tools to answer questions at the intersection of fundamental ecology and applied conservation. My research aims to understand the factors impacting the distributions and population dynamics for individual species and whole communities, then use that information to identify populations of conservation concern and ultimately develop effective conservation and management actions.

I received my Bachelor's degree from Miami University in Zoology and Environmental Science. While there, I studied trophic interactions in freshwater systems. I attended Louisiana State University to pursue a MS in wildlife studying habitat use in secretive marsh birds. I then worked as a wildlife biologist at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center addressing conservation issues on DoD properties. Eventually I returned to graduate school at Oregon State University to pursue a MS in statistics and a PhD in Forest Ecosystems and Society studying the effects of forest fragmentation on breeding birds. I then did a postdoc with at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center comparing land-sparing and land-sharing conservation approaches around coffee farms. In my second postdoc (Oregon State), I worked to better understand factors limiting the distribution of endangered Marbled Murrelets.