Outreach and Mentorship
Getting others involved in or just plain excited about ecological research is important to me. I also really enjoy it! Check out some of my favorite experiences below, and for a more complete list, please see my CV.
Mentorship
I have served as the primary research mentor for two undergraduate students while at CU. I guided these students through their first research experiences in ecology, encompassing the whole research process from field work, lab work, data analysis, and sharing their science (both as a talk and a poster, and for my mentee Andrea, as a co-author on our recently accepted bioaerosol paper!). Our research together has been funded by the National Science Foundation, specifically through the programs Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) and the Research Experience for Community College Students (RECCS).
An additional highlight of time in graduate school has been helping get CU’s chapter of Strategies for Ecology Education, Diversity and Sustainability (SEEDS) off the ground in 2021 as one of the graduate student advisors to the new chapter! SEEDS is supported by the Ecological Society of America (ESA) and aims to diversify and advance ecology by providing hands-on opportunities for undergraduates from under-represented groups to get involved in ecology.
Science Communication
I am passionate about engaging non-students in ecological research, too!
As academic ecologists we often state that a goal of our research is to ‘inform policy’. But this can be easier said than done—our research papers are primarily written for other ecologists, and are often not the most accessible to policymakers and boots-on-the-ground conservationists! For this reason, I’ve contributed a few articles to Conservation Corridor, a website that translates the newest research on landscape and connectivity science into accessible research summaries. You can check out my digests here! I hope to write more pieces for general or non-academic audiences, and I’m always open to new ideas and opportunities!
I’ve also given public talks about my research and other topics in ecology, in venues ranging from the Great Smoky National Park as a Part of their Science at Sugarlands series, to Knoxville Earth Day Fest, to the University of Tennessee Knoxville Science Forum (see the recording here!)
Other Outreach
