I am a graduate student working towards a doctorate degree in Genetics within the Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology Department at Iowa State University. I am coadvised by Drs. Anne Bronikowski and Jo Anne Powell-Coffman. As a graduate student, I conduct research at the University, take advanced classes related to my research, and teach at various levels.

As my teaching commitment, I am currently a NSF GK-12 fellow. Through this fellowship I collaborate with a 7th grade science teacher in Des Moines to bring more research-based science into the middle school classroom. An additional component of the fellowship is to improve how scientists communicate with the public. As part of this, I attempt to make my website and my research accessible to the public.

My area of research is Ecological Genomics. I have worked on a variety of projects with research teams both within the United States and internationally. All of my research revolves around two major questions.

1) How does an individual's genetics affect how it responds to the environment (particularly stressful environments)? Moreover, how does this response affect how the individual looks, acts, survives, and reproduces?

2) How do populations of animals change over time in response to their environmental conditions?

To approach these questions, I study wild populations of animals. Please see my research page for more details