Researchers

Research ecologist with over 25 years of field biology experience primarily in southern California and the Baja California Peninsula, with expertise in multi-taxa population monitoring, bird nesting ecology, and effects of fire and climate change. She has led a variety of major research projects for the San Diego Natural History Museum, including NSF-funded Grinnell Resurvey Projects documenting and interpreting changes to species’ distributions over the past 100 years. She has worked with endangered species, conducted binational expeditions, and developed monitoring protocols such as those for riparian birds in the Coachella Valley Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan. Through nest-monitoring by video camera, she has increased attention on the Gray Vireo, a species deserving higher conservation priority. A focus of her research has been on elevational shifts of bird species and the mechanisms involved, including response to fire and climate change. She is proficient in multivariate analysis of complex ecological data and has creatively adapted ordination methods for temporal as well as spatial gradients. She has been the recipient of numerous research awards including a Biological Impacts of Climate Change Research Grant from the state of California (2007) and is a Certified Ecologist by the Ecological Society of America.