Hello & Welcome!
I am the Curator of Research at the Memphis Zoo and
an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Arkansas State University.
I am a behavioral ecologist by training, but have worked on a wide range of projects from basic life history trade-offs, to applied ex/in situ conservation, to forming cross-institutional networks to promote research in biological collections, to increasing visibility of women in herpetology.
Recent News
Conservation Comic
Science Communication for all!
Communicating our conservation and resaerch projects is an important part of our work.
This awesome illustration by Andrea Rosales tells the story of our recent publication in Conservation Science and Practice.
Read the news article about this work on ABC24.
Zoo Museum Initiative
New Paper Alert!
Our paper on "Bridging the Research Gap between Zoos and Natural History Museums" is featured on Washington Post and the COVER of BioScience!
Zoos & Museums specialize in the care of living & preserved collections and are natural counterparts/ideal collaborators!
My co-orgranizers of "ZooMu" and I are working on a series of workshops to create a network between Zoos & Meseums and increase our collective impact on the scientific field.
*This amazing scan is by Dr. Jaimi Gray as a part of the oVert Project.
Global Women in Herpetology Project
Putting a spotlight on herpetologists from around the world & creating a student scholarship!
I am co-leading this project with Dr. Itzue Caviedes-Solis & Dr. Umilaela Arifin.
This project highlights the personal stories of 50 women who work with amphibians & reptiles from 50 countries & regions around the world. (That's 1/4 of all the countries globally!)
Funds raised by the project go towards supporting a scholarship for students from underrepresented regions to attend international conferences and present their research.
Visit the project website for more information.
Conservation in Action
See the new video series on our conservsation project for the critically-endangered dusky gopher frogs!
Through captive-breeding and releases, we are building a new wild population in their natural habitat.
This project is led by the Memhis Zoo, with collaborations with the USFWS, The Nature Conservancy, US Army Corps of Engineers, and a number of partnering zoos (most notably Omaha Zoo, Detriot Zoo, Dallas Zoo, & Como Zoo)
Invited Talk
Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists & Herpetologists (Aug 2022)
As part of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Symposium, I talked about the biases and barriers in our profession and the ways our shared colonial history manifests itself in our institutional structures and the hierarchy we see in the sciences.
Invited Seminar
Invited seminar talk at Rhodes College
Always great to talk to colleagues and students about zoo research and the various paths for biological research and conservation outside of academia.
Find out more about conservation projects at the Memphis Zoo's Amphibian Lab here.
