People

Gavin (he/him) is a Research Ecologist with Rocky Mountain Research Station – Wildlife Ecology Program (USDA Forest Service) and holds an appointment as an adjunct Assistant Professor in the Biology Department at the University of New Mexico. He completed his M.Sc. and Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and did postdoctoral research at the University of Florida. Gavin is an Associate Editor at Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment and Fire Ecology which are the flagship peer-reviewed scientific journals of the Ecological Society of America and the Association for Fire Ecology, respectively. Gavin has received recognition for early career research achievement from several professional societies and institutions including the National Academy of Sciences (2025 Kavli Fellow), the Association for Fire Ecology (2025 Early Career Award), the American Ornithological Society (2024 Ned K. Johnson Early Investigator), and the USDA (2022 Early Career Scientist). Download Gavin’s (possibly) recent CV here.

Kari (she/her) is a Biological Scientist working to develop robust and accessible biodiversity databases for multiple ongoing lab projects. Kari received dual Bachelor’s degrees in 2016 from Utah State University in Conservation/Restoration Ecology and Statistics, and completed her PhD in 2021 in the Environmental Science, Policy, and Management department at University of California-Berkeley on an NSF-GRFP award. She was a BIOS2 Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Montreal in 2022-2023. Kari’s expertise lies in computational ecology, quantitative methods, community ecology, and data management. She has developed multiple software packages for database management, and is interested in developing approaches for tracking biodiversity change over time. You can read more about Kari’s work here.

Anna (she/her) is an ORISE postdoctoral fellow. Anna received her Bachelor’s degree at James Madison University and her Ph.D. from Duke University’s Nicholas Institute in the Wright Lab in 2024. For her NSF-supported dissertation research, Anna studied plant-animal interactions in tropical forests and how such interactions might be leveraged to inform more effective forest restoration practices, including the role that spider monkeys play in patterns of forest regrowth. During her Ph.D., Anna was a AAAS Mass Media Fellow and also spent time as a reporting intern at Mongabay. As an ORISE fellow Anna will be developing dynamic species distribution models for species of concern in western North America.

Caroline (she/her) is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of New Mexico and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Her research uses field studies, remote sensing, and quantitative tools to answer questions that inform wildlife management decisions and advance knowledge of avian ecology and natural history. Caroline earned her PhD in Biology from the University of Washington, where she studied global-change impacts on Magellanic and Galápagos penguins. She recently completed a postdoctoral position with the Arizona Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, where she worked with resources managers on questions related to bald eagle population dynamics, habitat selection, and migration. Her current research focuses on understanding the association between habitat conditions and spatially explicit trends in pinyon jay abundance. Learn more here.

Elizabeth (she/her) is a PhD student (beginning Fall 2025) interested in climate change ecology and how disturbances (both human-caused and natural) interact with environmental change to influence biodiversity conservation. Elizabeth received her Bachelor’s degree in Conservation Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2022. Her Master’s degree, also obtained from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2025, focused on how fire, fuels management, and drought interacted to influence occurrence of California spotted owls in the Sierra Nevada. Elizabeth’s PhD research will focus primarily on the ecology and conservation of Mexican spotted owls in the southwestern United States, and how landscape pattern, legacies, and disturbance processes influence individual movements and population ecology.

Ronan (he/they) is a Spatial Ecologist studying past and ongoing rapid changes to the distribution of wildlife habitat in western North America. Ronan received his Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from Southern Methodist University with an emphasis in Biology. He earned a certificate in Geographic Information Systems from the University of North Texas before completing his Master’s degree in Ecology from Utah State University, where he studied the space use ecology of ungulates in landscapes characterized by linear features like roads and fences. Ronan has strong interests in wildlife movement and fire ecology, how these processes interact, and their implications for conservation. You can read more about Ronan and his work here.

Ceeanna (she/her) is a Research Associate interested in understanding how sensitive species are influenced by trophic interactions. Ceeanna graduated from Ohio University in 2015 with dual Bachelor’s degrees in Environmental Biology and Strategic Communications. In 2021, she earned her Master’s degree in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in which she used infrared nest-video cameras paired with fine-scale GPS tracking to understand trophic and foraging ecology of California spotted owls. Ceeanna is a project leader for the lab’s Mexican spotted owl GPS-tagging project, and has years of experience capturing, handling, banding, GPS-tagging, and taking biological samples from raptors.

Dana (she/her) is a Research Associate with interests in wildlife ecology and demographic patterns across broad spatial scales, and in benefiting the conservation of endangered and threatened species. In the Jones Lab, Dana will contribute to research on the movement ecology and conservation of Mexican spotted owls. Dana completed a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from the University of Washington in 2017. In 2023, Dana earned her MSc from the other UW, University of Wisconsin-Madison, focusing on acoustic monitoring of spotted owls in the Sierra Nevada, California. Dana’s innovative research established the “vocal home range” size of spotted owls and examined approaches for determining pair and breeding status from vocalizations alone.

Dani (she/her) is a graduate research assistant through the Biology Department at University of New Mexico. For her Master’s degree, Dani will be studying the impacts of rapid climate change on American pika occurrence, genetic connectivity, and behavior in Glacier National Park, Montana. In summer 2023 and 2024, Dani and her team of technicians re-surveyed 300 historical talus patches in Glacier and collected hundreds of scat samples for genetic analysis. She will be deploying acoustic recording units and camera traps to study pika behavior. Dani completed her Bachelor’s degree in Natural Sciences at the University of Alaska-Anchorage in 2020, and thereafter worked as a research technician on several projects in Alaska, including studies on arctic sea birds, collared pikas, and little brown bats.

Kate McGinn, Postdoc (2023-2025) | Current position: Visiting Assistant Professor, Colorado College

Jessalyn Ayars, Research Fellow (2021-2025) | Current position: PhD student, Oregon State University

Joshua Goldberg, Postdoc (2022-2024) | Current position: Station Statistician, Pacific Northwest Research Station, USDA Forest Service

Lucas Moyer-Horner, Research Associate (2023-2024) | Current position: Visiting Assistant Professor, Kenyon College

Marilyn Wright, Postdoc (2022-2023) | Current position: Biologist, US Fish and Wildlife Service

Arianna Bowman, Research Intern (2023) | Currently: Undergraduate at Delaware State University

Jack Shutt, Postdoc (2022) | Current position: Postdoc, University of Cambridge