My research takes a multidisciplinary approach to understand the evolutionary processes that gave rise to the exceptional diversity of fishes. Specifically, I am interested in understanding how morphological diversity arises at large geographic scales and over deep evolutionary time. I do this by reconstructing phenotypic evolution across global radiations that encompass hundreds to thousands of fish species. Using a big data approach, I combine phylogenomics, quantitative comparative anatomy, and phylogenetic comparative methods to compare hundreds of replicated evolutionary events across independent lineages and diverse geographies.
I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at University of California, Davis in the Wainwright Lab.
Oregon State University | PhD in Fisheries Science | Corvallis, OR | 2018
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa | MS in Zoology | Honolulu, HI | 2012
Southern Illinois University | BS in Zoology | Carbondale, IL | 2008
Postdoctoral Researcher | Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis (2022-Present)
Rose Postdoctoral Fellow | Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University (2019-2022)
Postdoctoral Researcher | Department of Biological Sciences, Western Michigan University (2018-2019)
Research Journey
I received my BS in Zoology from Southern Illinois University, where I was lucky enough to work with Dr. Brooks Burr on taxonomy of freshwater darters and jumped into the world of ichthyology.
From there I completed my Master’s at the University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa, under the advisement of Dr. Kassi Cole. Aside from learning to surf and honing my beach volleyball skills, I conducted research on the evolution of reproductive morphology and hermaphrodism in Indo-Pacific gobies.
I completed my PhD in the Sidlauskas Lab at Oregon State University in Spring 2018. My dissertation research addressed the tempo and mode of diversification in African and South American characiforms. I combined molecular phylogenomics, comparative morphology, and phylogenetic comparative methods to better understand the evolutionary processes that gave rise to biodiversity.
I built on my PhD research as an Edward W. Rose Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates and I am now a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Wainwright Lab at the University of California, Davis where I have returned to saltwater and coral reef fishes.
