Dry suit diving in the glacial melt waters between the techtonic plates in Silfra fissue, Thingvellir Park, Iceland
My lifelong love of wildife and the outdoors led me to pursue an education that focused on wildlife management and conservation. I graduated from The Pennsylvania State University with a B.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Science. After working as a field technician studying the survival of white-tailed deer fawns (Odocoileus virginianus), bob-white quail (Colinus virginianus) and ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) and a year of teaching 6-8th graders (a different kind of wildlife) I returned to pursue an M.S. from California University of Pennsylvania in Biology. My M.S. Thesis looked at landscape-level variables affecting ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) resource use. I earned my Ph.D. in Forest Resource Science from West Virginia University. My doctoral research centered on white-tailed deer-habitat interactions in West Virginia and focused on the influence of deer herbivory on rare wetland pland in the high-elevation wetlands of Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge
Outside of the classroom, I enjoy just about any outdoor activity including (but not limited to) hunting, fishing, hiking and backpacking, scuba diving, and horseback riding. I love to get my students outside as well whenever possible.
My research interests focus of the tenuous balance of wildlife-human-habitat interactions. In the future, I would like to help AB students pursue research on the influence of invasive plant species on mammals and herps.