I am currently an Assistant Professor of Biology at Union College in Barbourville, Kentucky. I am also finishing up my PhD in Matt Carling’s lab at the University of Wyoming. For my PhD work, I am studying reproductive isolation among passerine birds.

My main interests are behavioral and evolutionary ecology of birds. During my master’s work on gull nesting behavior, I realized how fascinating hybridization is–and that hybridizing species can help us understand the process of speciation. Despite the fact that gulls are really cool, I have switched study systems and am conducting a comparative study of reproductive isolation in songbirds. Several pairs of closely related passerine species hybridize quite extensively but other pairs do not hybridize even though they sing similar songs, have similar ecologies, and share geographic ranges.

Email me MY CV