Lab Members

My research is in the fields of population biology, population genetics, systematics, and the genetics of conservation. I am particularly interested in the links between patterns of geographic genetic differentiation and attributes of the ecology and life history of organisms such as mating systems, dispersal, and demography. In my research I combine field and laboratory (molecular) approaches to answer questions about organisms, their environments, and their histories.

I am interested in wildlife disease ecology with a focus on the amphibian pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. This pathogen threatens amphibians worldwide, and is an exciting opportunity to study a fungus that infects vertebrates. I want to know what genetic factors drive host susceptibility and pathogen virulence, and how those factors impact one another. Ultimately, I would like my research to contribute to the conservation of threatened amphibian species.

I am interested in exploring how environmental change will influence population dynamics and adaptive potential of amphibians. Specifically, I want to identify important genomic drivers of resilience, or lack thereof, in amphibians threatened by altered landscapes and climate change. My goal to use contemporary and historic data to predict future population dynamics as environmental threats progress over time. 

My research focuses on adaptive genetic variation across landscapes, and the influence of gene flow, on phenotypic diversification. I use phylogenetics, biogeography, and landscape genetics to study variation in amphibians and reptiles. Specifically, my dissertation research focuses on signal color polymorphisms across the range of desert tree lizards (Urosaurus ornatus).

My research incorporates methodologies from animal behavior, population genetics, animal physiology, and genomics to investigate the mechanisms of local adaptation. I want to understand the evolution of thermal tolerance in ectotherms to better predict species distributions and potential for success in response to climate change. Spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) are an excellent system because they are small-bodied, widespread, well-studied, and not endangered. This allows me to study populations across large distributions and bring animals into the lab for controlled experiments.

I am interested in how infectious diseases play a role in host population dynamics and how hosts respond to pathogens to offset costs of infection. My research focuses on how individual variation in pathogen resistance affects a bird’s ability to survive, reproduce and migrate; and how this ultimately affects parasite transmission across scales. I study Avian Malaria in temperate and tropical swallows to see how different birds use different strategies to cope with infectious diseases.

I am interested in studying how active learning strategies and inclusive teaching practices improve learning for students in STEM online courses. As an ALI Post-doctoral Fellow, I am applying and assessing active learning strategies in a new online course where students are introduced to evolution and diversity concepts. I am also interested in comparing if the efficacy of these active learning strategies differ between online and in-person courses.