Graduate Fellow in Marine Parasite Ecology
I completed my Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology and Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2013. I then received my masters in Wildlife Science from Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute in 2016. For my masters, I used telemetry data to analyze group foraging behaviors and the potential for cooperation in humpback whales in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Southern Oceans.
I have actively pursued my interest in marine mammals with the goal of acquiring enough knowledge and skills to innovate creative solutions to conserve marine mammal populations. While I have always been passionate about marine conservation, I reignited my interest in wildlife health through working with Oceans Initiative, where I was a research associate from 2016-2018 before starting my PhD.
Marine parasite ecology is the perfect niche for me, as I aim to assess the prevalence of parasitism as a cryptic stressor in killer whale populations. My overall goal is to tell a story about how parasitism has changed in the Puget Sound over the last century and what implications this has for marine mammal hosts. You can learn more about the progress my research here.
