I work in service of coastal ecosystems, fisheries, and the people who depend on them. My goal is to better understand and mitigate human-caused disturbances by studying changes in animal health and behavior. I work closely with community, research, and state and federal agency partners to steward marine ecosystems and identify sources of both susceptibility and resilience to ongoing changes in our oceans.
My research spans the fields of behavioral ecology, community ecology, invasion biology, disease ecology, and conservation, especially with regards to fishes, corals, and their symbiotic interactions with other species. I use field- and lab-based methods, data analytics, and evidence synthesis (meta-analysis).
Ocean-locked: How a girl from the heartland became a marine biologist in the heart of the Pacific...
My love for the ocean motivates my personal and professional life, but I was born and raised on a rural farm in land-locked Kentucky. After becoming scuba-certified in a freshwater-filled rock quarry, I could hardly imagine a life spent too long above water. I attended a small liberal arts school, Centre College, and spent my summers as a coastal intern studying fish-parasite ecology in Oregon and the Virgin Islands.
Upon graduating, I was a Fulbright Advanced Student in southern France where I studied immunological ecology of fishes (et la langue d'amour!). I also briefly worked in a rural community north of Lake Victoria in Kenya, where I was a primary school teacher.
I was fortunate enough to receive a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to begin my PhD at Oregon State University. My dissertation investigated how the invasive Pacific red lionfish affects and is affected by members of a native interaction web of parasites, cleaner fish, and fish hosts on Atlantic coral reefs. My research revealed mechanisms by which lionfish may be successful in their invaded range, including low infection rates and an ability to learn quickly.
As a postdoc at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, I had diverse research interests. While at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology, I used meta-analysis to develop management thresholds for common stressors on coral reefs, especially those caused by coastal runoff and dredging (i.e., sedimentation, contamination, and eutrophication). Previously, I studied the early development of fish by quantifying the behavioral, physiological, and morphological mechanisms underlying their survival during the most critical stage of life.
Before joining the USGS Hawai‘i Cooperative Fishery Research Unit in February 2022, I was the Essential Fish Habitat Consulting Biologist for the Main Hawaiian Islands, located at the NOAA Pacific Islands Regional Office in Honolulu.
I love surfing, hiking, traveling, playing music, and watching Kentucky basketball, all with my friends and talented husband, Yam.
