About Me
I earned a MS in Biology from East Carolina University under the mentorship of Dr. Michael McCoy in Quantitative Ecology. My graduate research centered around the phenomenon of phenotypic plasticity - the ability for a single organism to produce multiple physical, behavioral and/or chemical responses to changes in their environment.
Specifically, I studied how different species of tree frog tadpoles physically responded to chemical cues from predators in their aquatic environment, looking at changes in tail shape as a response to predation risk. I was interested in understanding how changes in morphology affect survival and fitness, how different species exhibit varying phenotypes to shared predators, how these prey phenotypes alter predator-prey relationships, community dynamics, and long-term evolutionary trends.
Left: a Pine Woods tree frog adult, one of my research focal species
a Red-spotted eft in Brevard, North Carolina
I lived and worked as a professional field biologist in Environmental Consulting for 2 years in southern California. I’m now back on the east coast, and am currently based in eastern North Carolina.
When I am not working in the field, you can still find me spending much of my time hiking outdoors & exploring the natural world.
I enjoy long-distance hikes, a glass of red wine or a good lager, baking homemade sourdough (terribly), creating chef-inspired meals for loved ones, and obsessively-photographing local flora and fauna.
Snow in the eastern Sierras, near Kernville, CA
the Grad school gang | my lab and advisor
Field work in Southern California, holding a juvenile Whiptail lizard