In 2009 I graduated from Rutgers University in New Jersey with a B.S. in Ecology and Natural Resources with a focus on evaluation. I then attended East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania where I studied dietary overlap of canids in Pennsylvania, examining interspecific competition. I graduated in 2012 with a M.S. in Biology. After completion of my M.S. I worked with a variety of species, including bats, bears, wolves, ungulates, and waterfowl. In the past I have been a seasonal technician for a private consultant company, the National Park Service, Wildlife Services, and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW). The last five years I have worked in the Health and Population Laboratory for ODFW where I coordinated the white-nose syndrome monitoring program, as well as, disease monitoring of a variety of other species. In my role with ODFW I also assisted in population monitoring of the majority of large game species in Oregon.
I joined the Epps Lab in March of 2021 and am currently enrolled as a Ph.D. student. In a collaborative effort with ODFW my research is examining the role habitat and cow elk body condition have on elk calf recruitment. We placed GPS collars on cow Roosevelt elk the last two years and in 2021 we implanted Vaginal Implant Transmitters on all captured pregnant cow elk. We then followed up and placed GPS collars on the elk calves to better understand survival and movement patterns of elk calves. Our collaborative effort with ODFW will give us a better understand of the role habitat places in elk calf survival and thus give ODFW more information to manage the elk herds in Oregon’s coastal range.