Postdoctoral Researcher                                                                                                 2023 – current

University of California, Davis

Research Advisors: Dr. Elizabeth E. Crone and Dr. Neal Williams

• Leading a multi-institutional project with academic, federal, and NGO partners to investigate western monarch (Danaus plexippus) breeding phenology and habitat use across Department of Defense lands and nearby wildlife refuges.​

• Conducting field surveys and vegetation assessments, and curating resulting datasets, to evaluate how seasonal and spatial variation in breeding activity, milkweed availability, and vegetation structure shape patterns of habitat use.

• Preparing technical progress reports for project stakeholders that summarize methods, interim results, and provide actionable recommendations to help land managers schedule and prioritize conservation actions while minimizing conflicts with other land uses.

• Co-leading a National Park Service–funded inventory of monarch butterflies and bumble bees (Bombus spp.) in Lassen Volcanic National Park and Whiskeytown National Recreation Area to document species occurrence, phenology, and floral associations, and to inform park vegetation management, restoration planning, and fire/fuels treatments.

• Co-managing an NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) project investigating how other pollinator taxa use milkweed habitat on Department of Defense lands, and how this use relates to surrounding vegetation structure and floral resources.

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Graduate Research Assistant                                                                                              2017 – 2023

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship

University of Nevada, Reno

Research Advisor: Dr. Elizabeth G. Pringle

​Dissertation focus: Community dynamics across a mosaic of chemistry: a study of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus), their larval food-plant (Asclepias spp.; milkweeds), and their predators through an environmental gradient in the Great Basin.

• Investigated the "phytochemical landscape" of milkweeds by surveying 45 populations across the Great Basin. Phenotype data was then compared to plant secondary metabolites using a non-target approach, from which I identified compound classes that respond differently to biotic and abiotic pressures.

• Established six common gardens across a 400 km environmental gradient to determine differing climate-mediated abiotic and biotic pressures on

• Examined the intraspecific variation of induced plant trait responses to co-occurring herbivory and water-limitation using a common garden, with plants from low water-availability areas responding with greater magnitude to single stressors, and all populations showing a decline in response to two stressors.

 

Field Assistant Researcher                                                                                                                2017

Washington State University                              

Supervisor: Dr. Cheryl B. Schultz

• Conducted surveys for endangered Fender’s blue butterfly (Icaricia ilariids fenderi) eggs on threatened host-plants (Kincaid's lupine; Lupinus sulphureus kincaidii) in long-term monitoring plots.

 

Undergraduate Researcher                                                                                                 2016 – 2017

Washington State University

National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduate Program

Research Advisor: Dr. Cheryl B. Schultz                                                          

• Designed and implemented independent project investigating the sublethal effects of neonicotinoid seed treatments from co-planted crop species with host-plants (milkweeds) on monarch larval development and survival.

 

Undergraduate Researcher                                                                                                 2015 – 2018

Portland State University

Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program          

Research Advisor: Dr. Susan E. Masta                                                

• Identified to family level and cataloged morphospecies for parasitoid Hymenoptera collected from pitfall traps, which demonstrated a large diversity of parasitoid community assemblages from urban green roofs.

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Undergraduate Assistant Researcher                                                                                 2015 – 2017

Portland State University                         

Research Advisor: Dr. Daniel J. Ballhorn                                      

• Examined the effects of nitrogen-fixing rhizobia on parasitoid Hymenoptera recruitment in Phaseolus lunatus (lima bean) by assisted with background literature searches, data analysis, and manuscript preparation.

• Analyzed previously collected data to determine the effects of foliar fungal endophytes on below-ground symbionts in P. lunatus under light-limited conditions.

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Undergraduate Assistant Researcher                                                                                             2014

Portland State University                         

Research Advisor: Dr. Sarah Eppley                            

• Established random 10-x-10 meter quadrats within study area with research group to survey epiphyte communities in managed Oregon oak (Quercus garryana) woodland areas       

• Analyzed percent cover and number of epiphytic species per tree within given quadrat between treatments.

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