Research Interests and Background:

I grew up in urban areas in California, but my passion into birds/ecology started when I moved to Minnesota in high school and went on my first ever camping trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in remote northern Minnesota. Here, I learned my first bird song, the whistle of the White-throated sparrow, and fell in love with asking questions about the natural world. This passion for the outdoors continued as I pursued a Biology degree at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. After graduating, I spent one year as an English teacher in a suburb of Barcelona, Spain and then I worked as a field tech for an enviornmental consulting firm. From 2019-2021, I attended the University of Florida and received a Master’s in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation. My research focused on how birds utilize the urban matrix.

My broad research interests include spatial ecology, species redistribution, human impacts on birds, and phenological mismatches, with a specific emphasis on boreal communities. I strive to apply what I study to inform land managers on best practices to improve preservation of avian biodiversity, to identify important conservation areas/habitats as species’ range shift due to climate change, and to help inform state wildlife action plans.

Other than my research, I really enjoy biking (in both winter and summer), birding, playing basketball and volleyball, and running.

My work in the Zuckerberg Lab will be a collaborative project to predict the occurrences and abundances of bird species based on habitat variables from multiple scales. Using citizen science data sources, I will be modeling multi-scale habitat associations for a large suite of bird species and testing hypotheses about which scales matter most for what kinds of species.

Education:

M.S. Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, 2021. Thesis: Urban Forest Fragments vs Residential Neighborhoods: Urban habitat preference of migratory and winter birds.

B.A. Biology, Saint John’s University, 2017.