Before coming to the USGS as a Mendenhall Fellow in 2014, I worked in a wide variety of systems. I was introduced to – and fell in love with - the discipline of conservation biology early in my undergraduate career when I was invited to assist on research on human-wildlife conflict with tigers in Sumatra, Indonesia. During this time, I spent a summer in Baja, Mexico, learning about conservation approaches for sea turtles. I went on to complete a professional degree in conservation biology at the University of Maryland, where I was exposed to a wide curriculum in economics, policy, ecology, and geography – including a summer semester in tropical ecology in Costa Rica. I moved to the Department of Geographical Sciences at the University of Maryland to complete my PhD under the co-advisement of Drs. Ruth Defries and Bill Fagan. I studied the effects of habitat and connectivity loss for golden-headed lion tamarins in the Atlantic rainforests of Brazil. My post-doctoral research was completed at Virginia Tech under Dr. Jeff Walters, where we developed decision support tools for the conservation of red-cockaded woodpeckers on military installations in the southeastern U.S. Throughout this time, I’ve assisted in conservation workshops as a member of the IUCN’s Conservation Planning Specialist Group.

Landscape ecology Geographic information system analysis Habitat change Habitat connectivity Shorebirds