About me

I am an quantitative ecologist that focuses on developing surveys and statistical models to inform conservation and natural resource management decisions. I assist in designing field surveys (inventory and monitoring) and research projects in coastal, terrestrial, and freshwater ecosystems of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Wildlife Refuge System. Surveys are used to estimate the abundance and occurrence of wildlife (animal and plant) populations and factors influencing their dynamics through time across multiple scales. I support the development and review of habitat management and inventory & monitoring plans, ESA 5-year reviews and species status assessments, as well as develop and train staff in efficient data management (spatial and tabular), visualizations, analyses, and reporting tools. Using principles of decision analysis, I assist a range of biologists and resource managers in making challenging conservation decisions that integrate many objectives and levels of uncertainty to identify robust management strategies and critical information needs.

​

I completed a postdoc at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, MA Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and US Geological Survey that focused on challenges facing headwater stream management of two headwater stream biota under climate change. Working with diverse natural resource management agencies (federal, state, local, and non-profit organizations), we explored the utility of developing Watershed Cooperatives to increase management effectiveness and explicitly addresses trade-offs in collaborative decision-making efforts. During my postdoc, I also explored impediments to proactive management for emerging infectious diseases (Bsal and white-nose) and amphibians in State Wildlife Action Plans across the northeastern US with the Northeastern Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (USGS Patuxent). My previous research (MS and PhD at the University of Georgia) focused on understanding flow-ecology relationships to inform stream and river management strategies. Specifically, I evaluated effects of extreme low flows on local and watershed-scale responses: multi-species fish survival, recruitment and movement and benthic ecosystem processes: primary and secondary biomass and production.

​