I grew up as an avid nature lover, camping, hiking, and exploring the beautiful mountains around Boise, Idaho. At 13 years old, I became involved with the Intermountain Bird Observatory's Lucky Peak bird banding station as a volunteer. Experiencing birds up close, I was instantly captivated by their every detail. I read and reread my field guides and began to take note of bird behavior and other subtleties of nature that I missed before. For the next two summers, I volunteered on several IBO projects including songbird banding, raptor trapping, and long-billed curlew breeding habitat surveys. Each of these experiences introduced me to new scientific questions and deepened my desire to understand the natural world.

I graduated with a B.S. in Environmental Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2018. As an undergraduate, I led two major research projects. First, I studied American goshawk nest site habitat through Boise State University’s Raptor Research NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. I designed and implemented a field research protocol, analyzed data using R, and presented my research at the Raptor Research Foundation Conference in 2016.  Second, I developed an undergraduate honors thesis project to investigate landscape-level habitat preferences of golden-winged warblers in North Carolina. My first, first author paper from this project was published in early 2023. 

In the fall of 2020, I earned the opportunity to return to IBO’s Lucky Peak banding station to work as a songbird bander. The 2020 season was the highest volume season in the station’s 25 years, and we captured over 7,000 birds. With only five full-time songbird banders and none of the regular volunteers due to COVID restrictions, we learned to work efficiently as a team through clear communication, task delegation, and individual initiative. Returning to the place where my interest in birds began was an absolute dream come true and I will always be thankful for the birds and people of Lucky Peak.

In 2021, I earned a research grant through the Highlands Biological Foundation to implement Caterpillars Count! arthropod monitoring programs across bird banding sites in Western North Carolina to study bird food availability. I connected researchers from UNC-Chapel Hill and Highlands Biological Station to design and carry out the program. That summer, I worked as the lead bird bander at 4 Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) sites, sampled arthropods, and trained volunteers to conduct arthropod surveys. I submitted a final report to Highlands Biological Station in Spring 2022 highlighting ecologically consequential differences in arthropod abundance and phenology between field sites. Highlands Biological Station is continuing this sampling program, which will provide valuable long-term data on arthropod trends in the region.

I began my PhD program at the University of Nevada, Reno in Fall 2021. Building on my past arthropod sampling experience in Western North Carolina, I introduced a rigorous arthropod monitoring program to my lab’s long-term field site in the northern Sierra Nevada to understand food availability for breeding mountain chickadees. With these data, I will examine how within- and across-season patterns of arthropod abundance affect the reproductive timing and output of chickadees across a montane elevational gradient.

I organize and lead bird identification workshops at the University of Nevada, Reno Museum of Natural History for members of the public using museum skins and taxidermy mounts