From June 2015 to September 2016, I was involved in the San Francisco Estuary Invasive Spartina Project managed by Olofson Environmental, Inc. We conducted fieldwork in sensitive marsh habitat throughout the San Francisco Bay, primarily mapping invasive Spartina alterniflora (cordgrass) and hybrids with native S. foliosa using ArcPad software on Trimble GPS units, removing plants and supervising herbicide applications, and working on revegetation efforts of native species. We conducted surveys for endangered Ridgway’s Rail, Black Rail, Virginia Rail, and Sora, identifying species, classifying call type, estimating heading and distance, and compiling data for abundance estimates.

In another foray into environmental consulting between November 2015 and September 2016, I worked on multiple contracts primarily as a biological monitor. I conducted protocol-level presence/absence surveys for Black rails and endangered Ridgway’s rails for a City of Palo Alto, CA golf course improvement project. A additionally performed water quality monitoring and biological monitoring for Pacific herring spawning behavior during an Army Corps of Engineers dredging project in Redwood City Harbor, San Francisco Bay, CA.

From July 2014 to February 2015, I interned with Massey University in New Zealand. I assisted on the PhD research of Krista Hupman (now of NIWA) on common dolphin photo ID in the Hauraki Gulf and Catherine Peters on bottlenose dolphin behavior and conservation in the Bay of Islands. 

During my undergraduate career at WWU, I assisted in the development of a non-invasive method of genetic analysis of harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) populations in the lab of Dr. Dietmar Schwarz in collaboration with Dr. Alejandro Acevedo-Gutiérrez. I collected scat samples in the field and performed genetic analysis in the laboratory. I completed my senior thesis project, "Sex-specific prey consumption in Harbor Seals (Phoca vitulina): A non-invasive genetic study" in 2014 and the paper building on this work will be published soon! 

During my last year at Western Washington University, I assisted on a research project on phytoplankton ecology with a focus on a new species of Halosphaera under the direction of Dr. Robin Kodner. I collected samples by plankton tow from boat and shore, enumerated and removed target species by microscope, documented their distinctive reproductive cycle using different stains and imaging techniques, and prepared samples for genetic analysis.

During the summer of 2013, I worked as a laboratory assistant at Shannon Point Marine Center in Dr. Kathy Van Alstyne's lab conducting ongoing research on chemical signaling in green macroalgae. We collected samples of the green alga Ulva sp. in the field, identified species by microscope, and designed and carried out experiments to determine the effects of numerous volatiles on the alga’s DMSP content, carbon/nitrogen ratio, growth rate, and herbivore consumption through PAM fluorometry, elemental analysis, gas chromatography, and digital image analysis.