PhD Research:

   I am studying how fragmentation impacts mountain lions in the Santa Cruz Mountains in the Bay Area of California. Check out our website and my tumblr! 

Mentoring Undergraduates

   I am collaborating with the UC Santa Cruz Museum director, natural reserves director and several graduate students on a long term small mammal population dynamics project in the Forest Ecology Research Plot at UC Santa Cruz. This project was primarily designed to help expose undergraduates to ecological research. We currently have two senior thesis students and two undergraduate interns and several volunteers who work with us to trap small mammals four times a year.

Summer 2009, 2010

    Another summer in Australia, using camera traps to look at the spatial and temporal distribution of predators and prey at Taunton National Park. 

Summer 2008

    I was a visiting scholar at University of Queensland in Brisbane,  conducting conservation research with bridled nailtail wallabies. These wallabies, colloquially known as flashjacks, are the most endangered macropods in the world, with about 500 individuals left in the wild. Although they are more endangered than pandas and gorillas, there is unfortunately very little attention paid to the flashjacks, even in Australia. Habitat degradation and predation by invasive predators are major factors contributing to the demise of this species (and many other Australian mammals). My research this summer examines the relationships between dingos (the top predator in Australia), introduced foxes and cats, and flashjacks on the reserves containing the three remaining populations of the wallabies. 

Summer 2007:

    I worked for the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory and studied snowy plovers in the South Bay salt ponds. Although the destruction of wetlands around the  Bay Area has been detrimental to many animals, some species have benefited from the salt pond habitats. Hundreds of endangered snowy plovers spend their breeding season in the Bay Area, feasting in the ponds. However, few pairs ever successfully fledge or even hatch any young, as they are constantly threatened by predators such as Northern Harriers. Some of the salt ponds are currently being restored back to wetlands, but some are being maintained to continue providing habitat for the plovers.

Winter 2006

Summer 2006

Summer 2005

I was an intern for the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory.

Fall 2004-Summer 2005

Summer 2004

Cornell Research

    While at Cornell, I conducted research in the psychology department, the neurobiology department, and the Lab of Ornithology. As a psych RA, I tested the subconcious visual memory of subjects by making them play the Whack-a-mole game. Later, working in the neurobiology department, I analyzed the auditory neurons of midshipman fish. Then, my last stint as a research assistant consisted of me categorizing the vocalizations of two Costa Rican parrots.