Working on Clarkia in Kern County, CA in 2018.
My research program is motivated by my fascination with flowering plants.
The mutualism that occurs between plants and pollinators is an incredible evolutionary response to the challenges plants face as rooted, generally immobile organisms. I find it fascinating that, in order to have other organisms assist with their reproduction, plants have evolved a whole suite of traits to attract pollinators and insure efficient pollination, including pungent floral scents, intoxicating nectar rewards, bright petal colors, and wild floral shapes.
My academic & professional background
Currently, I am a postdoc with Magne Friberg and Anna Runemark at Lund University. I am funded by an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology in the Rules of Life Track. At Lund I will be trying to understand the factors that contribute to variation in the floral scent of an artic-alpine herb, Arabis alpina, from the genome to the biotic environment.
I completed my Ph.D. in Monica Geber’s lab in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University. My dissertation examined how species interactions affect the distribution and evolution of multiple floral traits in California native wildflowers. Specifically, I worked on four species in the genus Clarkia that co-occur in the southern foothills of the Sierra Nevada, in Kern County, California.
Prior to beginning my Ph.D., I worked as a Research Associate for Christina Caruso at the University of Guelph in Ontario. In the Caruso Lab I worked on a wide array of projects that included time maintaining and measuring plants in the greenhouse, contributing to database projects, and developing methods to study pollen presentation.
I graduated from Amherst College with B.A. in Environmental Studies. I took a diverse array of courses in ecology and evolutionary biology, environmental history, economics, and statistics.
I am working towards a more diverse and inclusive scientific community
The lack of diversity in STEM is an important issue, and one that I am dedicated to helping confront. I am working to educate myself about diversity issues in STEM and how combat my biases and prejudices, with the goal of promoting greater social equality in our community. My goal to use the privileged identities that I hold to enable people from all backgrounds and identities to achieve thier goals in and out of science.