I work as a Regional Analyst, Natural Resource Specialist with the Renewable Resources Unit in the Eastern Region, USDA's Forest Service.
I'm an ecologist that has been working in freshwater ecology and terrestrial ecology for 26 years. I worked as an Aquatic Ecologist with National Parks Service Inventory & Monitoring Network, Northern Great Plains Network (NGPN) and as a Post-doctoral fellow in c/o Environmental Protection Agency, Western Ecological Division. I was involved in assessing current status and long-term natural resource trends and modeled watershed conditions. I recently joined the USDA's Forest Service, Eastern Region, Renewable Resources staff as a Regional Analyst and I am involved in landscape level analysis efforts involving forest ecosystem datasets. I work in various analysis approaches, techniques, and software programs for purposes including geospatial assessment, vegetation analysis, bioassessment, watershed condition, ecosystem dynamics, economics, and wildlife habitat. I play a supportive role in addressing a wide array of analysis needs in the forest planning process and I am excited to provide input and analysis for cross discipline large scale landscape resource management. I have a BS in Geography (GIS & Remote Sensing Focus) & BA in Environmental Studies from University of Nebraska-Lincoln, MS in Biology (Freshwater Ecology Focus) from Kansas State University, and Ph.D. in Fisheries and Wildlife (Aquatic Landscape Ecology Focus) from Michigan State University.
My post-doctoral fellowship work has incorporated principles of watershed ecology, landscape ecology, aquatic ecology, hydrology, and water quality in a systems approach to develop an index of watershed integrity for the conterminous US (Thornbrugh et al. 2018). The national Index of Watershed Integrity was developed as a first approximation as an applied index following a conceptual model of watershed integrity highlighting the multiple anthropogenic pressures humanity exerts on watersheds in the United States.
My past experience also includes 6 years spent working on long term monitoring and research projects with 15 federally listed threatened or endangered fish species and with the rivers and streams they inhabit. I have spent many years working in aquatic bioassessment and community ecology, assessing relationships between community structure of fish and macroinvertebrate assemblages, aquatic ecosystems, terrestrial ecosystems and multiple human-related pressures in the landscape.
I am an avid fishermen and enjoy exploring the outdoors via running, hiking, biking, camping, backpacking, and paddle sports.