Teaching & Outreach

I believe we learn best by doing. I strive to create mutually supportive, respectful, and empathetic environments where students and mentees feel empowered to try new things, make mistakes, and learn in the process.

Workshops & Training

FIA Database for Ecologists

Led a workshop at the 2023 ESA annual meeting titled "An introduction to estimating ecological change with the USDA Forest Service FIA database", organized with USFS scientists Harold Zald and Jane Terzibashian, and University of Maine PhD student Bailey McLaughlin.

The FIA database is an incredibly rich source of ecological data, but can be complicated for new users. The workshop aimed to demystify the database, provide tools for new users, and help ecologists avoid common pitfalls. All materials available in this GitHub repository.

Guest Lectures

Biol 1470 — Conservation Biology

Brown University

Wildlife Management (Fall 2021)
Wildlife Management (Fall 2020)
Wildlife, Climate, & Conservation (Fall 2019)
Niches, Tree-rings, & Climate (Fall 2019)

Bio 42 — Ecology

Brown University

Dendroecology (field & classroom, Spring 2019)

Teaching Assistantships

Conservation Biology (Biol 1470)

Brown University — Fall 2020 & Fall 2017

Mentoring & Student Training

Undergraduate Research Mentoring

I've had numerous opportunities to mentor undergraduate researchers in the field and lab. I was the primary mentor for Morgan Florsheim's 2020 undergraduate honors thesis at Brown University, titled "Understanding the role of adventive populations in tree species' ability to track climate change", training her in dendroecological field work, lab techniques, and analysis.

I've also trained multiple undergraduates in preparing, processing, and cross-dating tree-ring samples for ecological analyses. Other students I trained in GIS software for ecology now use those skills as professional geospatial analysts and field ecologists.

Field mentoring — Teaching tree-ring sampling skills in the field

Lab mentoring — Teaching dendro lab skills to undergraduates

Public Outreach

Montana Public Radio

I had the opportunity to talk about trees and biogeography on Montana Public Radio's "The Big Why" podcast, where listeners pose questions they've always wondered about. Check it out here.

Yellowstone Wildlife Safety

I contributed to a video about a grizzly bear encounter during wildlife fieldwork in Yellowstone National Park. The video is being used in visitor centers and staff trainings to teach about bear spray use and preparedness.