Education and Professional Appointments
2020- current: Senior Lecturer. James Cook University, Townsville. College of Science and Engineering: Zoology and Ecology.
2016- 2019: Lecturer. James Cook University, Townsville. College of Science and Engineering: Zoology and Ecology.
2014- 2015: Post-doctoral researcher. University of Florida. Collaborated with James Austin, Lyn Branch, Deborah Miller, & Madan Oli to assess the impacts of human-altered habitats on the behavior, movement ecology, and population dynamics of endangered beach mice.
2011- 2014: Post-doctoral researcher. Ohio State University. Collaborated with Stan Gehrt to evaluate how social interactions affect disease transmission in raccoons and domestic cats.
2008 – 2011: Post-doctoral fellow. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Collaborated with Roland Kays, Martin Wikelski and Patrick Jansen on the project: “Rodents as conditional mutualists of trees: When are agoutis effective seed dispersers?”
2007 – 2008: Post-doctoral fellow. Smithsonian Institute. Washington D.C. Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics. Collaborated with Jesus Maldonado on a project exploring the genetic basis of ring-tailed coati social behavior and reproductive skew.
Spring 2007: Resident Professor, Tropical Biology and Ecology, Undergraduate Study Abroad Program, Organization for Tropical Studies, Costa Rica
1998 – 2007: PhD. Stony Brook University. Stony Brook, NY
Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences (IDPAS)
PhD title: “Within-group spatial position in ring-tailed coatis (Nasua nasua):
Balancing predation, feeding success, and social competition”
Major Advisor: Dr. Charles Janson
1993 – 1997: B.S., Emory University,Atlanta, GA
Anthropology and Human Biology, and Human & Natural Ecology
Ben Hirsch Lab 