By far the most important member of our lab is Dr. Isa, PhDog. Her primary research focus is on identifying the location of the next dog treat. Dr. Isa holds office hours on most Wednesdays; no need to have questions for the other occupants of the lab to come on by and consult with her.

The next most important members of our lab are our students. This academic year (2024-2025), we have students contributing to research through paid positions with our collaborative USFWS grant, to study the endangered Channel Islands endemic plant Castilleja mollis. In spring of 2025 and going into summer, this work transitioned into a broader study of climate change effects on plants, funded by NSF. Our colleagues on this work include Toni Coria, Ana Rowley, Matthew Jaimes-Morelos, Olivia Rose, and Ally Samson . We also have students working on projects locally for senior thesis, including Abigail Gross.

Finally, there is Dr. T, who contributes the grey hairs, guidance on project ideas, and coding/stats/field methods experience. Dr. T grew up in Tucson, where she spent much of her time running around outdoors and soaking in the amazing ecology of the Sonoran Desert (picking up a few cactus spines along the way). After getting a B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona and then spending a year at Cambridge University studying Environment and Development, she landed in California for graduate school - and has been here ever since. Now she is a Professor of Biology and Environmental Science.

Dr. T. fell in love with the unbelievable ecological and species diversity in California, and also came to appreciate the importance of understanding and trying to solve the environmental problems in our own back yards. After having confidently told an undergraduate mentor that she would only study vertebrate animals, she also learned to get excited about the fascinating ecology of plants and insects and their foundational role in ecosystems. Also, after having sold her intro stats textbook within five minutes of completing the final exam, she came to understand how critical math and statistics are to working with scarce and valuable environmental data... and now teaches statistics. So, possibly asking Dr. T. to predict the future would not be a good bet, but asking her about how to use generalized linear mixed models would be! This picture shows her with her packmates, enjoying the outdoors.