Curriculum vitae
Current projects, mentorship, and service, alongside education, experience, talks, and awards. Publications have their own page, and courses are described in full on the teaching page.
Download the full CV (PDF) Projects Mentorship Service Talks Awards
Current projects
From tree crowns to forest patterns
Multimodal crown segmentation across spatial resolutions, linking individual tree crowns to forest size-abundance patterns.
Scaling biodiversity with beetles, big data, and AI
AI-powered imaging of NEON carabid beetle collections to extract functional traits at continental scale, with open data, protocols, and the CarabidImaging processing pipeline.
The Nature Record
Status, trends, and future projections of terrestrial ecosystems in the US, part of the first holistic assessment of U.S. lands, waters, and wildlife.
Degrees
PhD, Quantitative Ecology
Advisor: Sydne Record.
MS, Biological Science
Thesis: Towards fire severity assessments from space: applications and pitfalls of using GEDI LiDAR in the Amazon Rainforest. Advisor: Andrew Hansen.
BS, Ecology and Environmental Science
Selected appointments and experience
Select examples since 2020. The full history is in the PDF CV.
ORISE Research Fellow (GS 12)
Quantitative analysis of satellite data and environmental characteristics, contributing code and workflows to a fundamental rewrite of existing systems, and preparing publications and outreach on phenology, disturbance detection, long-term ecosystem impacts, and Experimental Forest and Range Network representation.
Research Assistant and Lab Manager
Spatial analysis, cartography, statistical analysis, and manuscript preparation, resulting in four publications on global and regional conservation. Assisted in grant applications for NASA and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
Data Management Contractor
Built an interface for automated data processing, workflow optimization, and database management for environmental chemistry analytes.
Students mentored
Cross-Institutional Research Mentor, NEON Beetle Imaging Project
Mentoring two ASU biology master's students (Leah Cotton and Jacqueline Dominguez) and one OSU computer science undergraduate (Nathan Cain) in biodiversity imaging, AI workflow development, and ecological data integration.
Undergraduate Research Mentor, Forest Remote Sensing and Carabid Traits
Mentoring undergraduate researchers (Nicole Mcadam, Sarah McCullough, Aaron Loud) on dissertation-related projects, with training in data analysis, scientific writing, and publication development.
SEEDS Mentor, Ecological Society of America
Caryn Iwanaga (2022, Montreal), Ian Crews (2023, Portland), Grace Elleen (2024, Long Beach), and Max Tchang (2026, Salt Lake City).
More on mentoring and courses taught on the teaching page.
Leadership, governance, and service
Highlighted rows are leadership roles.
- NEON Ambassador National Ecological Observatory Network Ambassador Program.2026–2028
- Early Career Ecologists Section, ESA Past Chair 2025–2026, Chair 2024–2025, Vice Chair 2023–2024, Member-at-Large 2022–2023. Leads a national section supporting thousands of early-career ecologists; hosted mentoring programs, networking events, and Professional Development Framework workshops; contributed to the ESA Professional Development Framework (2025) and the early-career publishing and reviewing assessment. Reviewer, ECE Outstanding Paper Award; Coordinator, ECE Travel Grant; Volunteer, Career Central mock interviews and CV reviews.2022–present
- Governing Board Early Career Representative, ESA Appointed, non-voting liaison to the ESA Governing Board for early-career ecologists.2024–2025
- Council Representative, ESA Liaison to ESA Council; contributed to the working group on equitable section governance; authored and implemented updated section bylaws.2023–2025
- Symposia Organizer, IALE-North America Organized the Remote Sensing of Landscape Change and Disturbance symposia, including 30 invited presentations.2024
- Participant, FloraPalooza Imageomics Institute.2026
- Invited Speaker, FAIR in ML, AI Readiness, and Reproducibility Workshop FARR RCN.2026
- Organizer, Scientific Modeling out of Distribution ML Challenge NSF HDR.2025
- Organizer, FuncaPalooza Imageomics Institute.2025
- Participant, Integrating Organismal Biology into NEON NEON RCN.2024
- Participant, BeetlePalooza Imageomics Institute.2024
Courses taught
- Experiential AI and Ecology (graduate) Graduate Teaching Associate. Imageomics Institute and AI and Biodiversity Change Global Center.2026–27
- Research Learning Experience (undergraduate) Instructor, University of Maine.2024, 2026
- Field Problems in Environmental Science (undergraduate) Teaching Assistant, University of Maine.2017, 2018, 2026
- LiDAR Remote Sensing (undergraduate and graduate) Contributing Instructor, Montana State University.2022
- Alpine Ecology (undergraduate) Teaching Assistant, Montana State University.2022
- Rocky Mountain Vegetation (undergraduate) Teaching Assistant, Montana State University.2020–2022
- Landscape Ecology (graduate) Teaching Assistant, Montana State University.2021
- Biological Diversity of Life (undergraduate) Teaching Assistant, Montana State University.2021
Invited talks and panels
- A use case of AI-enabled macroecology: how an AI pipeline is unlocking ecological insights from natural history collections for continental-scale trait-based research ESA Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT.2026
- Panelist: Getting Into Graduate School and Finding the Right Program ESA Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT.2026
- The Second HDR ML Challenge: Scientific Modeling out of Distribution, Beetles as Sentinel Taxa FAIR in ML, AI Readiness, and Reproducibility Workshop (RCN), Washington, DC.2026
- Career Central: Thriving in Graduate School ESA Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD.2025
- Spatial Data Science and Frontiers in Landscape Ecology College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, ME.2024, 2025
- Panelist: Developing a Model of Ecological Professional Development ESA Annual Meeting, Long Beach, CA.2024
- Mapping and tracking multi-year net ecological impact of growing conditions and disturbances to vegetation across the conterminous United States IALE-North America, Raleigh, NC.2024
- Quantitatively assessing the US Experimental Forest Research Network's current representativeness to guide decision making ScienceX Seminar Series.2023
- Oportunidades y desafíos para el estudio de la estructura del sotobosque forestal en la Amazonia Jornada Internacional de Recursos Naturales, Chachapoyas, Peru (coordinated English-Spanish live translation).2022
Conference presentations
- Poster: Multimodal crown segmentation across spatial resolutions Imageomics Conference, Columbus, OH.2026
- Poster: Multimodal crown segmentation across spatial resolutions AGU Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA.2025
- Poster: Optimizing image capture for computer vision-powered taxonomic identification and trait recognition of biodiversity specimens ESA Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD.2025
- Mapping and tracking multi-year net ecological impact of growing conditions and disturbances to vegetation across the conterminous United States ESA Annual Meeting, Long Beach, CA (2024); AGU Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2023).2023, 2024
- A quantitative approach to expanding the US Experimental Forest Research Network ESA Annual Meeting, Portland, OR.2023
- GEDI LiDAR: opportunities and challenges for studying understory forest structure in the South American moist tropical forests ESA Annual Meeting, Montreal.2022
- All things considered: how recreational development impacts ecosystem services Center for Undergraduate Research, Bangor, ME.2019
- Poster: Assessing the economics of Maine's coastal tourism development: the ecosystem services of Schoodic Peninsula, Acadia National Park ESA Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA.2018
Honors, awards, and funding
- Best NEON Presentation Award National Ecological Observatory Network.2026
- Travel Award Maine Wildlife Fisheries and Conservation Biology.2025
- Montana Space Grant Consortium Graduate Research Fellowship Research grant ($12,455).2022
- Leadership Award US Carbon Storage Science Program.2022
- Presidential Research Impact Award University of Maine.2019
- Margaret Chase Smith Public Policy Fellowship University of Maine.2018
- Center for Undergraduate Research Fellowship University of Maine.2018
Media coverage
- Can AI unlock the hidden data in biological collections? National Ecological Observatory Network Blog.Aug 2026
- Media tip sheet: AI in ecology at ESA's 2026 Annual Meeting Featured presentation, distributed via EurekAlert! (AAAS).June 2026
- Virtual Challenge Hackathon brings data science and ecology together National Ecological Observatory Network Blog.Apr 2026
- Nature report, killed by Trump, is released independently The New York Times.Mar 2026
- Ground beetle dataset aids US biodiversity research Quantum Zeitgeist.Jan 2026
- Biodiversity leaders at UNDP recommend framework for monitoring ecosystem integrity United Nations Development Programme press release.Aug 2021
- Montana State University ecologists develop plans to study forest health from satellites Bozeman Daily Chronicle.Aug 2021
- MSU ecologists outline methods for reaching global biodiversity targets Montana State University News Service.July 2021