Education

I completed my Ph.D. in the Department of Evolution, Ecology & Organismal Biology at Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio). This work began under the supervision of John Wenzel but I finished in the lab of Norman Johnson. For my dissertation I explored the relationship between variation in secondary sexual morphology and patterns of speciation revealed by phylogenetic analysis, using damselflies in the genus Argia as a case study. Using combined molecular and morphological data, I provided the first phylogenetic context for this common and ecologically-important genus. I used then-new methods to assess morphological variation in reproductive structures, by taking CT scans and quantifying shape variation within and among species. This work suggests that even within a genus, both natural and sexual selection can differentially operate. 

For my masters degree, I worked  in the Department of Entomology at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. My advisor was Anthony Cognato (now at Michigan State University). My thesis looked at population genetic structure of Acrotrichis (Ptiliidae, featherwing beetles) in late successional reserves of the Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion (northern California ). This work showed that the genetic diversity of non-target, co-occurring organisms in conservation approaches that focus on habitat and/or single species is not uniformly distributed among sites. I also developed some techniques for non-destructive tissue sampling for molecular work of extremely small and difficult-to-identify insects.

During my time at UT as a zoology major, I took a variety of electives that all centered on invertebrates. When I took entomology with John Abbott (now at the University of Alabama), I became fascinated with the biodiversity of insects and the beauty especially of Odonata. I spent a lot of time collecting and photographing insects in the Hill Country, the Stengl Ranch in the Lost Pines, and at Brackenridge Field Laboratory just outside of downtown Austin. I engaged in undergraduate research with insects and cichlid fishes in Cuatro Cienegas, Mexico (working with Dean Hendrickson) and this led me to pursue graduate school.

*Along the way to my Bachelors degree, I attended classes at both Central Texas College in Killeen and Austin Community College.