PhD Student
I am a PhD student in the Levi Lab. For my dissertation, I will be looking at the community effects of an elk reduction experiment in Starkey Experimental Forest and Range in eastern Oregon. The elk reduction is part of a long-term research project at Starkey run by the US Forest Service and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Thanks to the long term nature of the project and the phenomenal efforts of our collaborators, data abounds in the forms of capture histories, collars, cameras, flights, and scats, which will provide ample opportunity for us to look at some fascinating ecology in an experimental setting.
Prior to beginning my PhD, I completed an MS in wildlife biology at the University of Montana. For my masters I tested the robustness of the time- and space-to-event models for estimating abundance of unmarked populations with remote cameras. I looked at both the response to assumption violations and how well they perform in real-world settings when densities and detection rates are low. I also spent about five years working on various field projects between my undergraduate degree at Texas A&M and my masters. The allure of wildlife work was strong, but it needed more math. Now, in my free time, I enjoy long walks through other people’s buggy code, cold beers while I cook, and short runs in the mountains.
CATEGORIES: People