Hello & Welcome!
I am the Curator of Research at the Memphis Zoo and
an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Arkansas State University.
I am a behavioral ecologist by training, but have worked on a wide range of projects from basic life history trade-offs, to applied ex/in situ conservation, to forming cross-institutional networks to promote research in biological collections, to increasing visibility of women in herpetology.
Recent News
CARE Center Grand Opening!
The Conservsation, Awareness, Research, & Education (CARE) Center Basecamp opened in Sri Lanka in Nov 2024.
I am co-leading this Memphis Zoo Conservation Six Flagship Project in collaboration with Dr. Enoka Kudavidanage, founder of the Tropical Ecosystem Research Network (TERN).
​
The CARE Center Basecamp opened in Nov 2024, marking the completion of Phase One of the Memphis Zoo-TERN CARE Project. This Center will be a center for conservation and education activities in the dry zone of Sri Lanka.
​​
We are currently working on Phase Two, which will be the construction of a Field Research Station to further support conservation efforts in a protected corridor area.
​
See video of the CARE Project and visit the CARE Project website for more information.
NSF Grant Awarded!
The Zoo-Museum Network Project was awarded a 5-year NSF Research Coordination Network grant in Sept 2024.
This is a project I co-lead with some wonderful collaborators from Audubon Zoo, Yale Peabody Museum, and Florida International University.
​
The ZooMu Project focuses on connecting living collections at zoos and aquariums with preserved collections at natural history museums, so that when an animal dies at a zoo/aquarium the physical specimen and collections data can be transferred to a museum. This way, an animal can continue to contribute to science and discovery in its "afterlife."
​
Visit the ZooMu Project website for more information.
Conservation Comic
Science Communication for all!
Communicating our conservation and resaerch projects is an important part of our work.
​
This awesome illustration by Andrea Rosales tells the story of our recent publication in Conservation Science and Practice.
​
Read the news article about this work on ABC24.
Zoo Museum Initiative
New Paper Alert!
Our paper on "Bridging the Research Gap between Zoos and Natural History Museums" is featured on Washington Post and the COVER of BioScience!
Zoos & Museums specialize in the care of living & preserved collections and are natural counterparts/ideal collaborators!
​
My co-orgranizers of "ZooMu" and I are working on a series of workshops to create a network between Zoos & Meseums and increase our collective impact on the scientific field.
​
*This amazing scan is by Dr. Jaimi Gray as a part of the oVert Project.
Global Women in Herpetology Project
Putting a spotlight on herpetologists from around the world & creating a student scholarship!
I am co-leading this project with Dr. Itzue Caviedes-Solis & Dr. Umilaela Arifin.
This project highlights the personal stories of 50 women who work with amphibians & reptiles from 50 countries & regions around the world. (That's 1/4 of all the countries globally!)
​
Funds raised by the project go towards supporting a scholarship for students from underrepresented regions to attend international conferences and present their research.
​
Visit the project website for more information.
Conservation in Action
See the new video series on our conservsation project for the critically-endangered dusky gopher frogs!
Through captive-breeding and releases, we are building a new wild population in their natural habitat.
​
This project is led by the Memhis Zoo, with collaborations with the USFWS, The Nature Conservancy, US Army Corps of Engineers, and a number of partnering zoos (most notably Omaha Zoo, Detriot Zoo, Dallas Zoo, & Como Zoo)
Invited Talk
Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists & Herpetologists (Aug 2022)
As part of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Symposium, I talked about the biases and barriers in our profession and the ways our shared colonial history manifests itself in our institutional structures and the hierarchy we see in the sciences.
​
Invited Seminar
Invited seminar talk at Rhodes College
Always great to talk to colleagues and students about zoo research and the various paths for biological research and conservation outside of academia.
​
Find out more about conservation projects at the Memphis Zoo's Amphibian Lab here.
