Background and Research Interests

My research interests are broadly related to wildlife habitat use and spatial ecology. I am especially interested in research that pertains to population or species level consequences of fine-scale movement and resource use decisions by wildlife.

I attained my B.S. and M.S. degrees in wildlife ecology from Humboldt State University in 2016 and 2019, respectively. During my time at Humboldt State, I studied the foraging and movement ecology of North American porcupines, in a coastal dune system. Through this work, I gained a foundational understanding of spatial wildlife ecology and developed a strong interest in learning different spatial modeling methodologies.

Following my masters, I worked as a contractor for the USGS in Fort Collins, Colorado. I worked closely with the Invasive Species team – primarily assisting with distribution modeling and mapping efforts on various projects. This position helped me understand the power of spatial modeling as a tool to better understand species/habitat relationships and the value of that knowledge to help effectively guide conservation and management efforts.

For my PhD research, I will be studying the past, current, and future effects of climate change on winter survival of ruffed grouse across the state of Wisconsin. This research will use a multi-scaled approach by monitoring populations of grouse across different forest and winter conditions, as well as using an integrated species distribution model to project the distribution of grouse within the state presently, and into the future. This work will be conducted in collaboration with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and results will be used to aid in the statewide management of ruffed grouse.