I've had the great privilege of working in a variety of study systems. My science career officially began in the woods of NH where as a freshman at UNH I spent rainy spring evenings searching for red-backed salamanders hidden in leaf litter.
I transferred to Cornell to focus on birds and spent several years conducting fieldwork and thinking about life history trade-offs in Tree Swallow populations of Ithaca, NY. I also participated in two research expeditions documenting the natural history of Old World suboscines in Malaysian Borneo and an audiovisual media collection trip in the Mojave Desert with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
After graduating I spent a summer surveying Yellow-billed Cuckoos in southern California, and then embarked on my Masters degree at the University of Florida, studying wading birds and an invasive python in the sawgrass marshes of the Florida Everglades.
For my dissertation, my goal has been to combine ecological and evolutionary perspectives. It has been particularly rewarding to work with Australian agencies to conduct fieldwork in New South Wales and assess the population genetic status of an Australian honeyeater living across an aridity gradient and highly fragmented landscape due to agricultural land-use change.
Education
2019 - present PhD candidate Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
2015 - 2018 M.S. University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
2009 - 2012 B.S. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Field Skills
Mist-netting (traditional and aerial netting), banding, avian blood collection (brachial venipuncture), avian morphometrics, non-lethal egg microsampling of albumen, camera-trapping, environmental DNA sampling, GPS navigation, airboat operator (>120 hr), outboard motor operator (>20 hr), fixed-wing aerial surveying, avian specimen field prep, and permitting, trained in tree-climbing, collecting digital media incl. avian sound recording, attaching radiotags, telemetry
Lab Skills
Environmental DNA methods (single-, multi-channel pipetting, sterile technique, filtering water), droplet digital PCR, quantitative PCR, traditional PCR, electrophoresis, phenol-chloroform DNA extraction, plasmid digestion, optimization of synthetic mini gene standard curve for eDNA detection assay, serial dilutions for ddPCR plate standard curves, troubleshooting QX200 ddPCR methodology, Qubit 3.0 fluorometry, spectrophotometry, inhibitor removal troubleshooting (with Zymo and Mo Bio kits), microsatellite methods, thorough protocol documentation
Data Analysis Skills
Experienced in managing and proofing data, occupancy modeling using Bayesian methods, statistical analysis using generalized mixed linear models, geospatial analyses, niche modeling, multivariate statistical analysis, phylogenetic generalized least squares analysis, character mapping, microsatellite kinship analysis, transcriptomic analysis (Bioconductor packages), population genomic analysis, use of super-computing clusters HiPerGator 2.0 and Cannon at Harvard
Software and Language Proficiency
Basic: Mathematica, html, Access, Raven, CERVUS, mySQL
Intermediate: GitHub, arcGIS, LaTeX, MATLAB, Microsoft Office, awk, sed
Advanced: R, Rstudio, Powerpoint