Graduate Student
Research Interests and Background
I am originally from Sun Prairie. I had the privilege of growing up in a rural area next to nearly 20 acres of natural prairie. My parents introduced me to native plants and animals, I caught frogs in the spring, and eagerly awaited each fall when the sandhill cranes would migrate. These among many other experiences fostered a life-long love and curiosity for our planet and its ecosystems. I attended UW- Stevens Point and earned a Bachelors degree in Wildlife Ecology Research and Management, with minors in Biology and GIS. I then continued at Stevens Point onto a Master’s of Science, focusing on beaver habitat modeling and remote sensing-based detection methods. During my undergraduate program I worked as the lead GIS technician for the Courte Oreilles Lakes Association in northern Wisconsin developing forest sensitivity indexes to promote best management practices for water quality preservation. I have also conducted free-lance work analyzing existing Cooper’s hawk datasets for Wisconsin, North Dakota, and British Columbia. During my Master’s program, I moved to Alaska and worked for the Bureau of Land Management’s Eastern Interior Field Office where I examined spatial patterns of moose and caribou, and conducted a backcountry float trip to survey for nesting peregrine falcons.
My broad research interests include: landscape ecology, raptors, semi-aquatic mammals, and remote sensing applications for wildlife. I consider myself an inter-disciplinary student; I enjoy collaborating with others and working with existing datasets to produce meaningful contributions to wildlife science and management. In addition to academics, I enjoy tree-climbing, fishing, foraging, art, and music.
My PhD research in the Zuckerberg lab will focus on boreal forests and how they may serve as climate-change refugia for boreal bird species using remote-sensing techniques. I will be assessing boreal forest microclimates and foliar chemistries associated with food cache preservation. Using Wisconsin’s breeding bird atlases, I will also investigate temporal range shifts for declining boreal birds.
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