About me...
I am a PNW gal through-and-through! I was born and raised outside of Portland, OR and received a BSc in environmental science from the University of Oregon in 2014 and an MSc in wildlife ecology from the University of Washington in 2019. Between my undergraduate and graduate degrees, I worked for USGS conducting American pika surveys across Montana and Wyoming to contribute to a study investigating their extinction dynamics and the impacts of microrefugia. I also spent time as a laboratory technician for the Aquatic Bioinvasion Research and Policy Institute, a joint initiative between Portland State University and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.
As a graduate student at the University of Washington I studied how mammals respond to human activity and glacial recession in Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska. This breathtaking park is in southeast Alaska, about 50 miles northwest of Juneau, and is known for its incredible wildlife and tidewater glaciers. Tourism to Glacier Bay is increasing, which increases the potential for wildlife and humans to interact, and part of my research focused on quantifying human activity levels at popular destinations around the park and investigating how wildlife change their space and time use in response to humans. As visitation to protected areas like national parks increases around the world, there is an urgent need to understand how wildlife will respond, and this study will assist park management in making yearly decisions regarding sustainable tourism.
The second aspect of my research focused on the tidewater glaciers of the park: iconic, dynamic rivers of ice that shaped Glacier Bay's history, topography, and biotic communities. All of Glacier Bay proper was covered in a giant ice sheet only 250 years ago, but around 1750 the most rapid deglaciation in modern history took place, and Glacier Bay was uncovered. This led to the exposure of hundreds of square kilometers of land to biotic colonization, and my research used remote cameras, small mammal live trapping, vegetation surveys and statistical analyses to understand the successional patterns of mammalian communities of the park following this deglaciation.
As a graduate student at the University of Washington I studied how mammals respond to human activity and glacial recession in Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska. This breathtaking park is in southeast Alaska, about 50 miles northwest of Juneau, and is known for its incredible wildlife and tidewater glaciers. Tourism to Glacier Bay is increasing, which increases the potential for wildlife and humans to interact, and part of my research focused on quantifying human activity levels at popular destinations around the park and investigating how wildlife change their space and time use in response to humans. As visitation to protected areas like national parks increases around the world, there is an urgent need to understand how wildlife will respond, and this study will assist park management in making yearly decisions regarding sustainable tourism.
The second aspect of my research focused on the tidewater glaciers of the park: iconic, dynamic rivers of ice that shaped Glacier Bay's history, topography, and biotic communities. All of Glacier Bay proper was covered in a giant ice sheet only 250 years ago, but around 1750 the most rapid deglaciation in modern history took place, and Glacier Bay was uncovered. This led to the exposure of hundreds of square kilometers of land to biotic colonization, and my research used remote cameras, small mammal live trapping, vegetation surveys and statistical analyses to understand the successional patterns of mammalian communities of the park following this deglaciation.
Current positions
'While in graduate school, I became increasingly interested and involved in science communication, and am currently a Science Communication Fellow with the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, WA. Here, I develop hands-on activities for guests to participate in that facilitate discussions about my graduate research in Alaska and wildlife conservation in general.
Since graduating from the University of Washington, I have worked at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture as the Mammalogy Collections Assistant. In this position, I wore a variety of hats and was involved in many different projects in the Mammal Lab. I spearheaded the project of digitization of the entire mammal collection for uploading to the ARCTOS database, used 3D scanning technology to scan animal bones such as an entire Alaskan grizzly bear skeleton, whale teeth, and a dinosaur furcula, and assisted in preparation of specimen, including bats, a Komodo dragon, and Townsend's chipmunks. Effectively communicating science to guests is imperative in a natural history museum, and some of the most rewarding work I did at the Burke Museum was developing and presenting interpretive programs about mammals to guests.
Currently, I am working for Linksbridge SPC, a global health consulting and advisory firm based in Seattle, WA. Here, I use my strong writing skills and ability to interpret dense, jargon-y information and translate it into easy to understand material. I am owning the project of creating, developing and writing an onboarding and training guide for new employees, as Linksbridge hires global health experts to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic and other diseases. While I don't have a background in global health, I have approached my responsibilities in this role as one big science communication problem. All of the information about how Linksbridge operates is stored in the minds of its employees, and I was tasked with extracting this data (via interviews with staff), analyzing it, visualizing it, reporting the results and ultimately telling a compelling story with the data. I am in charge of interpreting complicated global health, international partnership, business operation, and project management information, and presenting it in a way that makes sense, is fun to read, and is informative.
Since graduating from the University of Washington, I have worked at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture as the Mammalogy Collections Assistant. In this position, I wore a variety of hats and was involved in many different projects in the Mammal Lab. I spearheaded the project of digitization of the entire mammal collection for uploading to the ARCTOS database, used 3D scanning technology to scan animal bones such as an entire Alaskan grizzly bear skeleton, whale teeth, and a dinosaur furcula, and assisted in preparation of specimen, including bats, a Komodo dragon, and Townsend's chipmunks. Effectively communicating science to guests is imperative in a natural history museum, and some of the most rewarding work I did at the Burke Museum was developing and presenting interpretive programs about mammals to guests.
Currently, I am working for Linksbridge SPC, a global health consulting and advisory firm based in Seattle, WA. Here, I use my strong writing skills and ability to interpret dense, jargon-y information and translate it into easy to understand material. I am owning the project of creating, developing and writing an onboarding and training guide for new employees, as Linksbridge hires global health experts to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic and other diseases. While I don't have a background in global health, I have approached my responsibilities in this role as one big science communication problem. All of the information about how Linksbridge operates is stored in the minds of its employees, and I was tasked with extracting this data (via interviews with staff), analyzing it, visualizing it, reporting the results and ultimately telling a compelling story with the data. I am in charge of interpreting complicated global health, international partnership, business operation, and project management information, and presenting it in a way that makes sense, is fun to read, and is informative.
