I am a plant and quantitative ecologist interested in population and community responses to environmental variability.

I am currently a post-doctoral research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey's Southwest Biological Science Center, where I work to understand the environmental variables that influence plant regeneration in the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau. My research synthesizes knowledge about priority restoration species to develop new models to forecast plant establishment in western US drylands.

I completed a PhD in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University. I studied plant populations and the causes and consequences of variation in life histories. I asked questions about life history evolution and temporal variability in population dynamics using long-term demographic data from populations of a California winter annual plant, Clarkia xantiana. I tested whether variation in seed dormancy across populations was explained by bet hedging, and I evaluated how temporal variability in demography changes across the species' geographic range.

In addition to my work with Clarkia xantiana, I developed statistical models for seed bag burial and seed addition experiments. I also worked on a project focused on how patterns of plant development interact with variation season length to shape life history trade-offs. Critically examining my own teaching as a graduate student also led me to be involved with research on how instructional practices and teaching strategies influence student experiences in the classroom, as well as student outcomes such as grades.