Having spent most of my life on islands, my interest in the diversity of life naturally drew me to the study of island biogeography. More broadly, I aim to shed light on biodiversity in understudied taxa, regions, and ecosystems. Throughout graduate school, these interests have guided my use of genetic tools to investigate the distribution and community ecology of coral reef fauna across the tree of life, as well as the evolution of reef fishes. In addition to my research on the connectivity and biogeography of island-associated marine fauna, I have been particularly interested in mesophotic coral ecosystems.
I am among the main users of the ToBo environmental DNA lab facility, which I established in the early years of my PhD. As a graduate research assistant, I spend my time processing environmental DNA samples collected during the National Geographic Society’s Pristine Seas expeditions, as well as conducting bioinformatic analyses for that program. I also contribute analyses to other ToBo Lab metabarcoding and population genetics projects. In addition to carrying out all stages of genetic research projects in-house—from sample collection through DNA extraction, library preparation, next-generation sequencing, bioinformatics, and statistical analyses—I am an active AAUS scientific diver and boat operator at HIMB.
Originally from Prince Edward Island (the smallest province in Canada), I studied for my BSc with a joint advanced major in Biology and Kinesiology at St. Francis Xavier University (StFX). After this, I worked in a few research related positions in Bermuda, Cambodia, and with the Canadian federal government before beginning the Erasmus Mundus Master Programme in Evolutionary Biology (MEME). I spent most of my time in this pan-European program studying the evolution and genetics of marine animals at universities in France (Montpellier), Germany (Kiel), the Netherlands (Groningen), Switzerland (Zurich), and Saudi Arabia (KAUST). In addition to PhD-related activities in Hawaii, I have had the opportunity to conduct field work in northern Canada (with Pristine Seas) and American Samoa, as well as present my research in New Zealand and Japan on multiple occasions.
Check out my CV here, as well as my Google Scholar and GitHub pages by clicking below:
