Interests

I have always been fascinated by biology and my passion for investigating ecological and evolutionary processes and patterns within island systems, a key theme in my Ph.D. dissertation, sprung to life as an undergrad at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. I was taking a marine evolution and ecology course when I learned about researchers investigating species distributions through space and time. I was captivated and soon became involved in research involving marine organisms within island systems and the discipline of biogeography. When we think of islands, terrestrial oceanic or continental islands may come to mind but in the littoral realm of island archipelagos, in marine lakes, in freshwater lakes, on seamounts, around atolls, and on guyots live marine organisms that are isolated from other populations and communities similar to de novo and habitat terrestrial islands. My research has sought to explore how communities and populations develop and evolve within these peripheral environments.

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I conducted my Ph.D. research in the lab of Dr. Michael Dawson at the University of California, Merced. My primary research focus was island biogeography exploring the framework of the General Dynamic Model in the marine lakes of Palau through community and population ecology and evolution. My undergraduate research was conducted under the advisement of Dr. Peter Marko at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa investigating the population connectivity of Echinometra matheai sea urchins, throughout the Indo-West Pacific.