Background

Biography

I came to OSU-Cascades after studying grasshopper speciation in the Sierra Nevada and the influence of parasitic flies on ant behavior and community ecology in Costa Rica and Brazil. I became interested in restoration ecology while working in the sand dunes of San Francisco during my ant post doc at UC Berkeley.

Education

• PhD, Population Biology, University of California - Davis, 1994.
• B.A., Biology, Amherst College, 1987.

Research

I conduct research in topics spanning behavioral ecology of scavengers; restoration ecology of forest, field, and streams; and the application of restoration ecology to medicine. Being a scientific generalist has helped me to explore fields from a trans-disciplinary perspective and offer my undergraduate students a wide array of research experiences that match their interests.

Teaching

In my classes I try to give students hands-on experience, whether it is identifying aquatic insects, doing fieldwork in restoration, or working with data sets in ecology.

Courses Taught at OSU-Cascades

• BI 370 – Ecology
• BI 371 – Ecological Methods
• BI 375 – Field Studies in Ecological Restoration
• Z 477 – Aquatic Entomology

Awards

• OSU-Cascades Teaching Award. 2017.
• OSU-Cascades Outreach Award for work with local resource agencies and landowners. 2012.

Research areas