2023

Currently, I am a Postdoctoral Scholar at Penn State University working with Jill Hamilton on Fraxinus landscape and population genomics of Ash (Fraxinus L., Oleaceae) species. Ash trees are a vital component of many of North America’s forest ecosystems, providing key ecosystems services, such as maintaining soil hydrology and nutrient cycling. My first project at Penn State is focused on better understanding the population and landscape processes affecting genetic diversity in Oregon Ash (Fraxinus latifolia Benth). With the recent discovery of EAB in Oregon (June 30, 2022), there is immediate concern for the conservation of the pacific northwest’s only native Ash species. While efforts have been in place to prepare for invasion of EAB, this is the first project to investigate population and landscape genomics in Oregon Ash. Other projects include investigating polyploidy and hybridization in Oregon Ash and the effects of EAB invasion on several eastern North American Ash species.

2020 – 2023

At Boise State university, I was part of the ‘mechanisms’ section of the GEM3 (Idaho EPSCoR) research program, focusing on mechanisms of drought-stress adaptation in the ecologically important plant Artemisia tridentata. I conducted research on Aquaporin genes regarding their enrichment and drivers of expression in the Artemisia tridentata genome. I conducted differential expression analyses on plants from a drought GxE experiment. Other work also includes genomic analyses of Artemisia tridentata clonal lines from different environments within the geographic distribution of A. tridentata, phenomic comparisons of individuals from different populations grown under common garden conditions, and assembly and annotation of a chromosome level genome assembly. My research contributed to our understanding of adaptation to drought and heat stress. Ecosystems around the world are currently experiencing ever increasing stresses due to climate change. This research will help to inform conservation efforts of Artemisia tridentata by identifying populations from which to select seed for reseeding efforts and lead to broader understanding of drought tolerance mechanisms with applications to natural systems and crop science.

2013 – 2020

My MSc thesis included research on Cytokinin Response Factors (CRF) and plastomics in a genus of southeastern wildflowers (Marshallia, Asteraceae). I conducted abiotic stress tests to identify up-regulators of the Marshallia Clade III CRF gene, as well as assembled and described its sequence and conserved domains from genome-skimming genomic and transcriptomic data. I also contributed to the assembly and analysis of Marshallia plastome sequences. Plastome sequences were used to investigate plastid RNA editing within several Marshallia species. My PhD research focused on testing hypotheses about the origins of the eastern Asia – eastern North America floristic disjunction’s species richness anomaly utilizing molecular and macroecological analyses. Projects included (i) testing the hypothesis that elevated rates of molecular evolution in EA lineages contributed to the species richness anomaly, (ii) testing how these disjunct lineages utilize available niche space and tested for climatic niche conservatism, and (iii) determining whether communities comprising plants of the EA-ENA disjunction have diversified within the same or into different areas of niche space and if these processes have influenced the species richness anomaly. These projects allowed me to develop collaborations with researchers from other countries, particularly China. Other projects I worked on utilized the BiotaPhy platform (https://biotaphy.github.io/) and other tools to test hypotheses of lineage divergence in the disjunct lineages and how ecological and/or biogeographic processes could have influenced it.