About Me

I'm originally from southern Ohio, and then moved to Vermont for high school.

I received my B.A. from Colby College in Waterville, Maine and then became very interested in avian physiology and endocrinology after working as a summer field assistant with Dr. Stephen Schoech on Florida Scrub-Jays in central Florida.

During my Ph.D. at University of Washington, Seattle, Dr. John Wingfield introduced me to northern Alaska and his work on hormone-behavior interrrelationships in arctic-breeding songbirds. Of course, I fell in love with Alaska! At this time, we began to conduct studies on the ecoimmunology of songbirds.

After finishing my Ph.D.in 2004, I moved to Barrow, Alaska and worked as a wildlife biologist for the North Slope Borough. This was an incredible experience and one that I will always remember! I had lots of great North Slope adventures, including run-ins with polar bears!

I decided to return to academia and conduct my first postdoctoral appointment at the University of Alaska, Anchorage (2009-2010) with Dr. Loren Buck where we investigated the circadian physiology of Lapland longspurs (Calcarius lapponicus), an arctic-breeding songbird. For my second post-doc (2011-2012), I investigated sleep-immune interactions in Dr. Randy Nelson's lab at the Ohio State University using a seasonal-breeding rodent- Siberian hamsters (Phodopus sungorus).

Since 2012, I have been a professor at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, KY, studying the immunological costs of sleep loss in mice and birds.

In my spare time, I enjoy camping, fishing, hiking, birding with my four awesome kids: Asa (16), Sabine (14), Wyatt (12), and Isaiah (9).

Bird in hand!: With my daughter Sabine in Costa Rica