I graduated from the University of Connecticut in 2019 with a dual degree in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Molecular & Cell Biology. During this time, I lived on a game reserve in South Africa where I engaged in field guide training and gained experience in tracking and monitoring animal behavior. In 2023, I received a Masters in Environmental Science from Yale University. My master's research examined socio-ecological factors shaping human-carnivore conflict in Botswana. This work resulted in livestock depredation risk maps for African lion and wild dogs, while revealing the complimentary nature of combining predictive modeling with community perceptions in identifying areas of conflict concern.
I can often be found with a camera in my hand as I is incredibly passionate about wildlife photography and the art of storytelling. A primary goal of my work is bridging the gap between published research and the communities in which research is conducted. I often use digital media to translate the ecological, cultural, and economic relationships between wildlife and humans to broader audiences.
Current Research
I am interested in human-wildlife interactions and the effect of anthropogenic pressures on both species’ movement and the creation of novel landscapes of fear. Through the scaling of risk effects research from the laboratory to the landscape level, my research aims to experimentally quantify the non-consumptive effects of human predation, in the form of subsistence poaching, on multi-species interactions. This work is carried out through the novel application and testing of the habitat domain theory in Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda. Here we examine how spatially varying anthropogenic pressures alter habitat domains and, in turn, the nature of interspecific interactions. Through fine scale movement data collected from Ugandan kob, African lions, and spotted hyenas in areas of high and low poaching pressures this study will reveal the impact of human predation effects on spatial food web dynamics in a multi-predator-prey system.
