Tara is an assistant professor in the Ecology and Evolution Department at Stony Brook University. She is also affiliated with the Turkana Basin Institute. With a background in biology and geology, Tara is interested in integrating environmental change with biological pattern and process today and through deep time, focusing primarily on mammalian faunas.

Tara holds a BS from the University of Washington, where she got her start in paleobiology and gained a love for field and museum-based research. She was an Environmental Peace Corps Volunteer in Madagascar and Tanzania from 2008-2010 and finished her PhD in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and the Museum of Paleontology at the University of Michigan in 2016. Following her PhD, Tara was an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Integrative Biology at Oregon State University and the Stable Isotope Ecology Fellow at the Environmental Resilience Institute at Indiana University.

You can view my full CV here. Here are links to my Google Scholar profile and GitHub account.

Dr. Barrett is a mammalian paleobiologist and currently an International Research Fellow with the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo, Japan, as well as a Research Associate at Stony Brook University in the Department of Ecology and Evolution. His research is focused on the processes that shape the evolution of morphology, ecology and ecosystems, with particular interest in terrestrial carnivores. Dr. Barrett's research unites information gathered from living and fossil datasets, integrating quantitative and specimen-based methods, including geometric morphometrics, phylogenetic comparative, network, diversification, and food web analyses. His work spans systems in North America, Africa and Japan with a strong background in field and museum research, as well as university education.

Ashley joins the Smiley Lab team in Fall 2025, following her B.A. in Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology at Columbia University. Welcome Ashley!

Email: ashley.house[at]stonybrook.edu

Sam joined the Smiley Lab team in Fall 2022. Prior to SBU, he attended the University of Washington, where he earned a BS in Biology and a Minor in Paleobiology, providing him with a background in biology and geology. Sam’s research interests are broadly focused on paleoecology, studying the interactions between ecology and evolution. Sam’s early research has involved ecometrics, methods by which scientists can indirectly approximate environmental conditions and thus reconstruct past environments. He remains interested in developing new ecometrics during his time at Stony Brook, and establishing the connections between past and present which make these reconstructions possible. Sam is specifically drawn to the middle Cenozoic era due to the many climatic, tectonic, and corresponding biotic shifts which occurred during this time interval, and is interested in applying his research towards East Africa through the Turkana Basin Institute.

Email: Samuel.lavin[at]stonybrook.edu

Immy joined the Smiley Lab team in Fall 2020. She studies individual variation in Peromyscus leucopus resource use under different seasonal and competitive conditions using stable isotopes. Previously, she studied the isotopic variation in Ixodes scapularis bloodmeal at Union College where she earned a BS in Biological Sciences and a BA in art history.

Email: imogene.welles[at]stonybrook.edu

Website: https://imogenewelles.wordpress.com

Megan joined the Smiley Lab team in Fall 2020, bringing with her an interest and background in small mammal paleoecology. She has a BS in Biology and a BS in Earth Sciences from the University of Oregon where Megan was introduced to small mammal paleontology and studied the Oligocene and Miocene fossil assemblages in and near the John Day Fossil Beds. Megan's dissertation research investigates how changing landscapes in deep time influence speciation and ecological diversity of small mammals, focusing on the radiation of heteromyid rodents in North America.

Email: megan.wyatt[at]stonybrook.edu

Alex joined the Smiley Lab team and the Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences (IDPAS) in Fall 2024, and is co-mentored by Dr. Kathy Twiss (Anthroplogy) and Drs. Greg Henkes and Troy Rasbury (Geosciences).

Email: alex.campbell-grey[at]stonybrook.edu