Current Research Projects

Marine Invertebrate Paleoecology

My paleontology research falls broadly under the umbrella of field-based marine invertebrate paleoecology. I have worked on the environmental context of early Paleozoic gastropods from the Great Basin, and still have research interests in this region and in the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE). Since moving to the Pacific Northwest, I've started work on ice sheet associated bivalve communities and microfossils preserved in Late Pleistocene glaciolomarine sediments in western Washington state. I'm interested in the biostratigraphic applications of these assemblages in regards to ice sheet migration and isostatic rebound. These paleocommunities can also inform us about ecosystem response to climate change, and may provide insight into modern Salish Sea ecosystems.

Geoscience Education Research

As part of the Science, Math and Technology Education (SMATE) group at WWU, I do a lot of work with pre-service K12 teachers. I am interested in how to best prepare teachers to teach Earth and Space Science (ESS) in K12 classrooms, and how to recruit and train a teacher workforce that reflects the diversity of K12 students in Washington State and in the United States more broadly.

Inclusive and Accessible Geoscience Education: Earlier this year, I was funded by NSF’s Innovations in Undergraduate STEM Education: GEOPATHS program to develop a “lab camp” course at WWU which will serve as an inclusive and accessible alternative to geology field camp that emphasizes lab-based research skills. This project also includes several smaller interventions in existing field experiences designed to improve the department’s culture around accessibility and inclusion. I will be studying students’ experiences at both lab and field camp, with the goal of determining the role that these experiences play in the development of students’ identities as geoscientists and sense of belonging within the geoscience community. I am also studying how to help geology students develop a deeper understanding of inclusion and accessibility.

Critical Educational Transitions in Geoscience: My work on critical educational transitions within the geosciences focuses on how students move from institution to institution throughout their education. These transitions include actions like transferring from 2-year community college (2YC) to university, choosing to declare a major, and transitioning from college into the workforce. I have been involved in this work since my graduate studies at UC Riverside, and have been actively engaged in a project that has developed a regional geoscience education network of public high schools, 2YCs, and UC Riverside. This project includes geoscience engagement opportunities for high school students through field experiences throughout Southern California, including a multiday field to Death Valley National Park each spring, research fellowships for 2YC students to participate in research opportunities at UC Riverside, and advising and mentoring for students who are planning to transfer from 2YC to university.

Social Network Analysis (SNA): SNA is a method of modeling community interactions and is a powerful tool for studying structure and pattern within communities. I use SNA to study educational pathways in geoscience, hiring practices in higher education, and scientific collaboration networks. SNA allows me to study how characteristics like race, gender, first-generation status, and academic pedigree shape a scientific community. I am currently collaborating with the Paleontological Society to apply SNA to membership data, and plan to expand this study to other subfields of geoscience. SNA can be used to model any type of social interaction, from classroom interactions to foodweb ecology.

As a paleontologist, I am deeply invested in how to teach about the history of life on Earth and in making paleontology more accessible for students. I am developing a series of student-centered learning activities for Historical Geology. I am also interested in studying how digitized fossils (photos and 3D scans) can be used in paleontology courses, with the long-term goal of developing a suite of digitized fossils that can be used as a teaching collection at institutions that do not have access to fossils.

Collections Digitization

I have been working with students at WWU to create a digital archive of our department collections. This includes creating a searchable online database of specimens that includes detailed descriptions, photos and 3D scans. Our goal in this project is to make the collections more accessible to anyone who wants to explore them, from WWU students to K12 teachers and students, and members of the wider Bellingham community. The fossil is an example of our work on this project.