Establishing a connection between people and nature is critical for long-term successes in biological conservation.
I aim to be a great science teacher by providing fundamental knowledge, active learning experiences, and by inspiring students with my passion for conservation and my love of science. At Ohio Northern University, I teach courses including herpetology, marine biology, cell biology, microbiology, introductory biology, and in the future will teach tropical biology (study abroad in Ecuador). My previous teaching experience included undergraduate courses in Introductory Biology, Herpetology, and Ichthyology at Case Western Reserve University, and a study abroad Tropical Ecology and Conservation Field course in Ecuador in collaboration with Grand Valley State University (GVSU). The study abroad courses at ONU and GVSU provide students with a blend of field ecology and cultural studies making for an exciting introduction to the multifaceted field that is conservation science.
I also take great pride in the students I am mentoring during their research in the field, in the lab, and abroad. A few fantastic examples 1) ONU undergraduates and Field Semester participants, Lauren Govekar, Stephanie Drellishak, Sophia Beery, Julia Heenan, Dakota Swisher, Crystal Scales, and I are studying host and environmental influences on the carapace-associated bacterial communities of Gulf Coast crab species in relation to shell-rot disease. Lauren, Stephanie, and Julia presented their preliminary analyses (culture-based results) at the Ohio Academy of Sciences conferences over the past two years. Now this team is working on a manuscript presenting next-generation sequencing assessment of their samples. 2) Supported by a PREP Biology Fellowship, undergraduate psychology student, Ian Smith, of Ohio Northern University worked in my lab this past summer to assess how enteric bacterial communities of an Allen’s Swamp Monkey from Cleveland Metroparks Zoo changed during treatment for severe anxiety. Ian found that axiollitics (Alprazalam and Ketamine) were associated with significant shifts in enteric bacterial community structure and that the shifts were driven by rare bacteria which may have a disproportionally influential effect on the bacterial community function. Ian is using this data as preliminary research for his planned graduate studies investigating the possible mitigatory role the enteric microbiome plays in medicinal behavioral modification. Way to go Ian! 3) With assistance from myself, Tim Krynak (Cleveland Metroparks), and Eric Snyder (GVSU), Kent State University undergraduate (KSU) Alexa Wagner and GVSU undergraduate Alex LaValley teamed up to study sleep-site fidelity in Anolis gemmosus during the 2016 Ecuador study-abroad trip. This work was recently published in Herpetological Review! I could not be more proud!
I have also been fortunate to mentor graduate students in their research including GVSU Msc student Anna Harris. As adjunct at GVSU I served as a member of Anna Harris's thesis committee. Anna successfully defended her thesis which described the freshwater macroinvertebrate community as a function of energy transfer in cloudforest streams at Reserva Las Gralarias, Ecuador. I also mentored Michael Monson, Ms student at Cleveland State University, in his laboratory work examining gut bacterial community structure of Masai Giraffes from Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Finally, during the spring of 2017, GVSU Msc student Dana Wessels accompanied me on my Fulbright funded field research to examine the effects rainbow trout farming has on the ecological communities of the Mindo and Alambi regions of Ecuador. While my focus was on the amphibian life in this cloud forest habitat, Dana's specialty, and master's project focus, was on the invertebrate communities of the streams used for this aquaculture practice. Dana successfully defended her thesis in July 2018 and is currently preparing a manuscript for review!
I aim to be a great science teacher by providing fundamental knowledge, active learning experiences, and by inspiring students with my passion for conservation and my love of science. At Ohio Northern University, I teach courses including herpetology, marine biology, cell biology, microbiology, introductory biology, and in the future will teach tropical biology (study abroad in Ecuador). My previous teaching experience included undergraduate courses in Introductory Biology, Herpetology, and Ichthyology at Case Western Reserve University, and a study abroad Tropical Ecology and Conservation Field course in Ecuador in collaboration with Grand Valley State University (GVSU). The study abroad courses at ONU and GVSU provide students with a blend of field ecology and cultural studies making for an exciting introduction to the multifaceted field that is conservation science.
I also take great pride in the students I am mentoring during their research in the field, in the lab, and abroad. A few fantastic examples 1) ONU undergraduates and Field Semester participants, Lauren Govekar, Stephanie Drellishak, Sophia Beery, Julia Heenan, Dakota Swisher, Crystal Scales, and I are studying host and environmental influences on the carapace-associated bacterial communities of Gulf Coast crab species in relation to shell-rot disease. Lauren, Stephanie, and Julia presented their preliminary analyses (culture-based results) at the Ohio Academy of Sciences conferences over the past two years. Now this team is working on a manuscript presenting next-generation sequencing assessment of their samples. 2) Supported by a PREP Biology Fellowship, undergraduate psychology student, Ian Smith, of Ohio Northern University worked in my lab this past summer to assess how enteric bacterial communities of an Allen’s Swamp Monkey from Cleveland Metroparks Zoo changed during treatment for severe anxiety. Ian found that axiollitics (Alprazalam and Ketamine) were associated with significant shifts in enteric bacterial community structure and that the shifts were driven by rare bacteria which may have a disproportionally influential effect on the bacterial community function. Ian is using this data as preliminary research for his planned graduate studies investigating the possible mitigatory role the enteric microbiome plays in medicinal behavioral modification. Way to go Ian! 3) With assistance from myself, Tim Krynak (Cleveland Metroparks), and Eric Snyder (GVSU), Kent State University undergraduate (KSU) Alexa Wagner and GVSU undergraduate Alex LaValley teamed up to study sleep-site fidelity in Anolis gemmosus during the 2016 Ecuador study-abroad trip. This work was recently published in Herpetological Review! I could not be more proud!
I have also been fortunate to mentor graduate students in their research including GVSU Msc student Anna Harris. As adjunct at GVSU I served as a member of Anna Harris's thesis committee. Anna successfully defended her thesis which described the freshwater macroinvertebrate community as a function of energy transfer in cloudforest streams at Reserva Las Gralarias, Ecuador. I also mentored Michael Monson, Ms student at Cleveland State University, in his laboratory work examining gut bacterial community structure of Masai Giraffes from Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Finally, during the spring of 2017, GVSU Msc student Dana Wessels accompanied me on my Fulbright funded field research to examine the effects rainbow trout farming has on the ecological communities of the Mindo and Alambi regions of Ecuador. While my focus was on the amphibian life in this cloud forest habitat, Dana's specialty, and master's project focus, was on the invertebrate communities of the streams used for this aquaculture practice. Dana successfully defended her thesis in July 2018 and is currently preparing a manuscript for review!
GVSU Tropical Ecology and Conservation Class of 2014. Sampling invertebrates at RLG in Ecuador. Photo by Max Spencer.
