I am a Ph.D. student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Iowa State University.

I am interested in the effects of variation in resource availability and distribution on human foraging behavior and habitat choice. I integrate behavioral data from modern and prehistoric hunter-gatherer populations, statistical methods, and optimization theory to answer evolutionary questions regarding behavior as a response to ecological change.

My dissertation project revolves around the ecology of hunters-gatherer groups living during the Paleoindian period of the North American Great Plains, some 12-8 thousand years ago. I am applying Optimal Foraging models and spatially explicit paleoenvironmental reconstructions of the Great Plains, to generate predictions of modern and prehistoric hunter-gatherer foraging and habitat selection strategies, to be assesed using empirical archaeological data.

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