Expert in eDNA and multiple award winner in the Innovation Leadership Program (ILP) grant program.
What got you interested in ecology (or your related field)?
I grew up in a historic house near Año Nuevo State Preserve on the Central Coast of California. As a kid, wildlife was literally crawling, slithering, and growing through the walls. We would find Pacific chorus frogs on our windowsills, San Francisco garter snakes basking on the porch, and inky cap mushrooms coming up through the bathroom floor! I learned from a young age to appreciate the creatures we share the world with and decided I would spend my career protecting them.
What do you love/inspires you most about your area of expertise?
As somebody who uses environmental DNA (eDNA) to understand the movements and abundance of organisms, I am so inspired by our increasing ability to non-invasively learn about special status species and biodiversity as a whole from the DNA we collect from the environment. These genetic signatures allow us glimpses into the unseen and diverse world below the surface of the water or the soil.
What's the weirdest or funniest thing you've seen in the field?
When snorkeling in streams for fisheries monitoring, I always find it hilarious to observe sculpins (native benthic fish) trying to swallow another fish of equal size. I love how expressionless they are with the tail of their prey protruding out of their big mouths.
What's one interesting fact about you we need to know?
One time I ran 100 miles in one day through the Siskiyou Mountains of Southern Oregon.
What would your wish be for our planet's future?
I think that author Kim Stanley Robinson has a great vision for a future at the end of his novel Ministry for the Future, where global cooperation to combat climate change is the norm, where a carbon sequestration-backed currency incentivizes land preservation and greater social equity, and where vast ecological restoration and rewilding efforts create a world with less scarcity and greater biodiversity.
What's one thing we didn't ask you that you want to share?
I found my cat, Delmar, deep in the forests of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. Although he can't hunt in the forest anymore (Keep your cats indoors and wildlife safe!), he is now my cherished companion and scratching his chin is my favorite way to wind down at the end of the day.
