I am an assistant research scientist with Texas A&M’s Natural Resources Institute, adopted into Dr. Fieberg’s lab as I work remotely from Minnesota. I work with the US Fish & Wildlife Service’s southeastern region and other experts across state agencies, universities, and other organizations, to lead the development of Species Status Assessments (SSAs) for federally threatened and endangered species. These SSAs are assessments of the species’ needs, current condition, and projected future condition under different management and environmental scenarios, and form the scientific basis for policy decisions like downlisting or delisting species on the endangered species list, developing recovery plans, etc. I spent two years as a postdoc at Virginia Tech leading the modelling efforts for an SSA for the Red-cockaded Woodpecker, and am now spreading my SSA love across multiple plant and animal species in the southeastern US and Caribbean. My PhD work at the University of Idaho focused on the reintroduction and genetic monitoring of the Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit in Washington state. In my free time I like to travel the country and world, cook and eat good food, play outside (this Alaskan woman especially needs mountains), and work my way through my overloaded bookshelf.
