Biography

I grew up in De Soto, KS where I made a hobby out of going out and finding all types of reptiles and amphibians in my free time. I took that passion into my undergraduate at the University of Kansas where I worked in the Herpetology division at the Biodiversity Institute helping to maintain the historic collection there. My time in those labs stoked my curiosity about the patterns and processes responsible for generating the immense diversity of herps found across the globe. After KU, I moved to the city of brotherly love to continue my studies at Villanova University. For my master’s thesis I used sanger sequencing to develop a multi-locus dataset to better understand the evolutionary history of the sea krait genus Laticauda. Currently, I am working with a variety of agencies and non-profits to bring genomic data into the conservation management of the eastern indigo snake (Drymarchon couperi).

Education

Auburn University | Auburn, AL

PhD in Biology | August 2019 - Current

Villanova University | Villanova, PA

M.S. in Biology | August 2016 - December 2020

University of Kansas | Lawrence, KS

B.S. in Biology | August 2010 - May 2016