Postdoctoral Fellow

I am a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut in the Rubega Lab. I am collaborating with researchers from a variety of disciplines, including: ecology, journalism, education, and communications to create effective science communication training, as well as the tools needed to evaluate the effectiveness of training. As science and technology becomes increasingly intertwined in everyone’s lives, the importance of teaching scientists to communicate to the general public cannot be overstated.

When not working on science communication, I am integrative ecologist and conservation biologist with a range of interests. However, I am most interested in the mechanisms of species range limitations and how disturbance (climate change and habitat fragmentation) influences species distribution patterns and extinction processes.

My research focuses on using an integrative approach to understanding parrot distributions; the ecology, biogeography, and assembly of vertebrate communities; and extinction in parrots and parasites. My goal is to bridge the divide between ecological theory and on-the-ground conservation in order to make the best possible decisions not just for now, but for the future as well.