Kunar Province, Afghanistan, 2013.

After over 20 years of service on active duty and as a soldier in the Missouri Army National Guard, I medically retired.

Trail 25 overlook, Los Amigos Biological Station, Peru.

Injuries and illnesses from decades of military service had caught up to me and forced me to cut my military career short. This experience had inspired me to pursue medicine, even though I knew it was a longshot, I decided to enroll into college and start my academic career. Unlike high school, I loved being a college student! I was on the right track to enter medical school when I signed up for a research trip to the Peruvian Amazon in an effort to check the block on research required for medical school admission. Little did I know that this trip would change my entire trajectory. I fell in love with the idea of research, working with wildlife, and fighting to conserve the natural world. I had never felt such a sense of purpose. It wasn’t long before I decided that changing my path was the right thing to do. I completely switched gears from medicine to pursue a future in the world of science.

Upon returning from Peru I continued my work towards medical school for only a short time before I made the decision to abandon medicine and focus purely on science. My first foray into purely scientific research was in the lab of Dr. Kyle Benowitz, who is currently studying the genetics of parentage using burying beetles. My specific task was to try to determine the genetic mechanisms responsible for mandible development in the first instar larvae of two species. Ultimately we were unable to determine the mechanism in the short amount of time I had to attempt it, but I learned advanced microscopy using wide field and confocal fluorescent microscopes, as well as how to stain tissues.

My undergraduate career ended in May of 2022 when I earned my Bachelor of Science degree in general biology! During my undergraduate career I had a ton of great experiences, learned a lot about who I was, and got to take part in many great organizations on campus. Including service as the student senator of the College of STEM, the chapter president of the Pre-Professional Health Society, and I was inducted into two honor societies, NSLS, and Beta Beta Beta National Biological Honor Society. I also served on the Student Organization Council Finance Committee. Just before I graduated I made the decision to pursue a Master of Science degree at Austin Peay. I was accepted into the lab of Dr. Katie Haase, an ecologist who specializes in thermal ecology regarding mammals, primarily bats. I dove headfirst into the science of bats during the summer of 2022, learning to mist net, radio tag and track them, and identify various local species.

Presenting a talk to APSU students in the Honors Commons at Austin Peay State University

Dissecting a burying beetle in the lab of Dr. Benowitz.

I started work on my Master of Science in the fall of 2022. It was here that I began to narrow my focus on the interactions between predators and their prey. Much of my study was on an ecological concept known as the Landscape of Fear, in addition to various aspects of movement and behavior. I developed a study that would investigate the impacts of perceived predator presence on the foraging activity of bats local to Fort Campbell, Kentucky. My work was funded by Austin Peay State University and my field season spanned the summer of 2023.

During this time I recorded over 40,000 confirmed, ultrasonic calls from several different bat species in the area, including: big brown bats, gray bats, eastern red bats, tricolored bats, and evening bats. This data was used to assess whether bats reduce foraging in areas high in predator activity. This work resulted in my Masters Thesis, and is currently undergoing editing for publishing. Over the course of my graduate work at APSU I served in the student senate and as chapter president of the Tri-Beta Biological Honor Society. I was also inducted into the Omicron Delta Kappa honor society. I successfully defended my thesis in May 2024 and was awarded my M.S.. That same year I began working on my Ph.D. under the guidance of Dr. Malu Jorge in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.