RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Plant conservation biology and evolutionary ecology - mating system and floral trait evolution in Mimulus and Dalechampia, plant reproductive ecology, and ecological and evolutionary links with rarity.

 

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE:

Assistant Professor of Botany, Alaska Natural Heritage Program, University of Alaska Anchorage (June, 2004 – present; Assistant Research Professor June 2002 – 2004), with a focus divided in two areas:

As a faculty member, I have primary responsibility for courses in Plant Systematics and Plant Evolutionary Ecology; for research publications and grant-writing, and for mentoring students in independent study programs

Within the Natural Heritage Program, I direct floristic inventories across Alaska, write grants and pursue public outreach on plant conservation, survey invasive species, construct and maintain rare and exotic plant databases, and publish field reports on Alaskan plants and their ecology
 
Faculty Research Assistant – Plant Conservation Program at Oregon State University (1999-2002): studies of reproductive ecology, understanding morphological and genetic variation, seed germination biology, hybridization, symbiosis in a range of rare species (e.g., species in the genera: Astragalus, Ivesia, Oenothera,and Stanleya)

Botany Research Assistant – Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway (1998-1999): Worked on genetic constraints in the evolution of flower morphology in the tropical vine, Dalechampia scandens 

Botanist – Independent contractor for Oregon Department of Agriculture, Plant Conservation Biology Program (1998): Working on introductions of four threatened plants and a long-term demographic study of a rare Astragalus (Fabaceae) species

Faculty Research Assistant, Plant Conservation Program at Oregon State University (1994-1997):  Working on long-term demographic studies of four plant species, rare plant surveys in remote regions of Oregon, and greenhouse propagation studies of rare Oregon flora

Botany Field Assistant, Oregon Department of Agriculture, Plant Conservation Biology Program (1992-1993):  Working on plant demographic studies, rare plant surveys, and pollination studies of rare Oregon plants
 
Undergraduate Research, Willamette University (1993): Studying herbivory and seed predation as possible limiting factors in the fitness of a narrowly endemic Oregon plant