I believe inspiration should work both ways in mentorship.
Getting to know students and helping them on their journey is one of my favorite aspects of teaching and research. I've followed an untraditional path to get where I am today, and few things give me greater joy than helping students avoid the same mistakes I've made along the way. My mentees, past and present, have also taught me just as much about the world. I especially love mentoring students from different countries, cultures, and backgrounds.
Some of my past mentees
I have worked with some amazing students over the years, and I am so proud of what they have accomplished since!
I have worked with some amazing students over the years, and I am so proud of what they have accomplished since!
Gaurav Singh-Varma is currently a masters student at University of British Columbia in the Kremen Lab (previously at UC Berkeley), where he also majored in Biology as an undergrad. During his senior year, Gaurav conducted an independent study with me on acoustic interference in different tropical habitats. We are still working together on sound analyses projects. Gaurav has varied experience in field research, having worked with frogs in Madagascar, mammals in British Columbia, and salamanders in New York State. He is interested in the connections between animal behavior and physiology, as well as social relationships in animals not previously thought to be social. |
Robert Tyler is a recent graduate of Texas State University, where he majored in Wildlife Biology. As one of my field technicians in 2019, Rob was a huge asset to my project in Ecuador. Rob has an encyclopedic knowledge of all things wildlife and thrives in the field–in addition to frogs, he has experience working with bats as a technician in Texas and Tennessee. He is currently a masters student in the Fritts Lab at Texas State University, where he studies bat conservation and activity around wind measurement (MET) towers. Rob is also an amazing artist, and has created illustrations for scientific papers (including this one). Maybe someday he will come back to the light side and study frogs. Jackie Tleimat is currently a PhD student at Texas A&M, Corpus Christi in the McCracken Lab. Jackie was an undergrad on the Ecuador field course I taught in 2017. Impressed with her intelligence and sheer determination, and I asked her to be my field technician for my first field season in 2018. She was instrumental in getting my project off the ground. Jackie is resilient, innovative, and passionate–all traits that make her an amazing field ecologist. She just finished her masters on mammal behavior and conservation; she set up cameras and microphones in the canopy at Jama-Coaque Reserve to monitor biodiversity, including the endangered Ecuadorian White-Fronted Capuchin. For her PhD, she will study disease dynamics in the context of conservation. |
My mentors
This page would be incomplete without mentioning some of my own academic mentors, to whom I owe so much.
Prof. Claire Kremen is one of the true pioneers of conservation biology. I am beyond fortunate that she is my PhD advisor. Claire studies how to reconcile biodiversity conservation and agricultural production–one of the most pressing issues of our time. Her ideas are boundless, as are her accolades, which include the MacArthur Genius Award and the Volvo Environment Prize. She recently left Berkeley to accept a position at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada as the President's Excellence Chair in Biodiversity Studies. She has been a supportive mentor through all the ups and downs of research, and I've learned more from her about conservation and resilience of purpose than I ever could have imagined. Prof. Juan Manuel Guayasamin is a leading herpetologist in Ecuador, where he has discovered over 50 new frog species (and still counting)! But perhaps even more impressive is his ability to connect natural history and conservation. Juan Manuel was one of my academic heroes even before I met him...and my admiration for him and his work have grown exponentially since we've become colleagues. Juan Manuel believed in my research ideas from the start. Not only did he immediately offer his expertise and advice, but he also took the time to help me scout field sites when I was new to Ecuador. Juan Manuel has been a constant source of inspiration and encouragement, and I am so thankful for the incredible discoveries we've made together in the field. Here's to many more! Prof. David Rodriguez is a Associate Professor of Biology at Texas State University, where he just received the extremely competitive NSF Career Grant. I can say with every confidence that I would not be a biologist now if it weren't for David. I met David during his postdoc at Cornell, when I was considering whether I was cut out to make a career switch into science. Despite his huge workload, David took me under his wing and taught me lab techniques from scratch. When my field research in Madagascar didn't pan out, he gave me the advice and encouragement I needed to start over in Ecuador (which he also introduced me to by inviting me to be a co-instructor on his field course there). I am now a visiting scholar in his lab, where I am finishing the genetic component of my dissertation. David is everything a scientist should be: resilient, innovative, collaborative, generous, and diligent. Dr. Josh Ginsberg is currently the President of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. I was very lucky to have Josh as my international wildlife policy professor at Columbia University, a position he took on top of his duties as the Vice President of Conservation at the Wildlife Conservation Society. I was awe-struck by all the meaningful change he had facilitated in both conservation science and policy during his (still amazing and on-going!) career. I mustered up the courage to ask him about his career path after class, and the rest was history. He encouraged me to present my research at the UN Climate Change Convention in 2011, and has continued to encourage my personal and academic growth through the years. I am lucky to call Josh a mentor, a kindred spirit, and a friend. He is living proof that one person can make a huge difference. |