I am an expert in training dogs to sniff out hard-to-find samples for ecologists. Currently, I study carnivores in fragmented landscapes.

Photo credit to Michael Colgrove.

I am passionate about science communication and am the creator and host of the K9 Conservationists podcast. I have been featured as an expert in dog behavior and ecology in The Atlantic, Discover Magazine, and NPR.

Conservation detection dogs have taken me from Kenya's savannah to Nebraska's wind farms to Guatemala's jungles. Via K9 Conservationists, I have mentored over 200 conservation detection dog teams in 18+ countries and on 6 continents. We're still waiting on our first Antarctic student!

I love nothing more exploring mountains, deserts, jungles, and waters alongside my dogs. I've run 3 marathons, raced 9 American Birkebeiner ski marathons, summited 14 14,000ft peaks, and completed a solo ascent of the 17,000ft Mt. Iztaccíhuatl. I'm an avid salsa, bachata, and West Coast swing dancer.

But I'm still pretty clumsy.

For my PhD in Dr. Taal Levi's lab, I am studying the diet and movement of the Alexander Archipelago wolves (Canis lupus ligoni) with funding from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. My trained scat detection dogs Barley and Niffler and I are traveling to 30+ islands to collect wolf scat. Back at the lab at Oregon State University, I will analyze these scats for diet and individual ID so that we can determine which islands the wolves swim between and what factors influence the amount of marine subsidy to their diet. These wolves eat sea otters!

Building on a deep love of Central America and fluent Spanish, I also will be studying the recent recolonization of pumas in El Salvador. The dogs and I will travel to El Salvador to find scats of pumas, ocelots, jaguarundis, and other carnivores to determine the extent of puma recolonization and its effect on smaller carnivores.