About Me

I am currently a postdoc in the Wagner & Keagy labs at Penn State as part of the Pennsylvania Fish and Wildlife Cooperative Research Unit. I received my PhD in Environmental and Conservation Sciences at North Dakota State University, co-advised by Dr. Craig Stockwell (NDSU) and Dr. David Mushet (USGS). I completed my M.S. in Fisheries & Wildlife at Michigan State University advised by Dr. Kim Scribner. I also attended the University of Michigan where I earned my B.S., majoring in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology with a minor in Mandarin Chinese.

My current work is focused on population genetics and transcriptomics of fishes in the mid-Atlantic region of the US. We use genetic methods to assess connectivity and demographic history of invasive flathead catfish in Pennsylvania and to learn about the physiological responses of different native brook trout stress responses to heatwaves.

Previously, my I have conducted landscape genetics surveys of northern leopard frog in the northern Great Plains of North America. My research used genomic data collected from leopard frogs across North Dakota to answer questions around genetic diversity, population connectivity, and local adaptation. I am particularly interested in adaptive capacity of amphibian populations is impacted by land-use and climate change. I have also worked on problems surrounding lake sturgeon recruitment as part of my Master’s research. I used barcoding and metabarcoding techniques to identify larval lake sturgeon DNA in the diets of fish predators and identify abiotic environmental factors as well as variation in biotic communities that influenced the frequency of predation on young lake sturgeon.

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