Alicia “Lee” Thornton

Lee is an Integrated Sciences, Business, and Technology major at La Salle University. Lee is interested in virology and how socio-demographics and access to health care can influence disease spread. Lee is currently adapting SEIR models to incorporate interactions between different economic groups to model how income (as a proxy for access to health care) influences disease spread within populations.

Luke Szyszkiewicz

Luke is a Biology and Environmental Science major at La Salle University. Luke is conducting an analysis to investigate how rapid gentrification influences wildlife composition in formerly red-lined neighborhoods. Luke is interested in a career in environmental science. He also co-writes a bagel blog for the La Salle University newspaper.

Brisa Barrios

Brisa is a Biology major at La Salle University interested in human-wildlife interactions and is considering a career in the medical field or potentially in bio-engineering. Brisa is currently helping with a meta-analysis investigating urban residents’ perceptions of different wildlife.

Nicole “Nikki” Aquino

Nikki is a Biochemistry major at La Salle University. Nikki is currently assisting with various projects in the lab and is still exploring research project ideas.

Janelle Siefert

Janelle is earning her Master’s degree at Arizona State University. Janelle and I are working on a paper exploring how walkability relates to individuals’ satisfaction with their neighborhoods. Janelle is working with me to develop skills both coding in R and conducting spatial analysis in QGIS and ArcGis

Zane Encinas

Zane earned a triple major as an undergraduate at ASU and is currently an environmental educator. Zane worked on correlating iNaturalist posts with American Community Survey data to understand better where people engage with iNaturalist. His poster presenting this work won the best undergraduate presentation award at the CAPLTER all scientist meeting 2021.

Kinley Ragan

Kinley studies human-wildlife conflict management and coexistence, as well as wildlife habitat use and movement. Kinley’s Master’s thesis used camera traps to explore how wildlife uses river corridors in Northern Mexico. Kinley is currently a Field Conservation Research Technician II for the Arizona Center for Nature Conservation.

Website: https://kinleyragan.weebly.com/

Caroline Beardsley

Caroline worked with me from 2016 to 2019. Caroline started working with me as an Aresty Research Assistant to identify and sort invertebrate samples. Caroline has gone on to present our work at the annual Aresty Symposium at Rutgers (2016), at the Student Conference on Conservation Science in New York (2017), and most recently at the Ecological Society of America in New Orleans (2018). Caroline has also helped me conduct initial research for a meta-analysis. Caroline is currently a teacher at Greater Hartford in New Jersey.

Featured Work:
Crystal-Ornelas, R., J. A. Brown, R. E. Valentin, C. Beardsley and J. L. Lockwood. 2021. Meta-analysis shows that overabundant deer (Cervidae) populations consistently decrease average population abundance and species richness of forest birds. Ornithological Applications 123:1-15. DOI: 10.1093/ornithapp/duab040.

Gloria Blaise

Gloria is a Ph.D. student in Cornell's Department of Natural Resources. Gloria is interested in human-wildlife interactions and people's perception of wildlife. Gloria and I worked together to write and collect data for her Cook Scholars Senior Thesis from 2018-2020.

Featured Work:
Blaise, G. C., Brown, J. A., Jordan, R. C., & Sorensen, A. E. (2020). The Impact of Forest Usage and Accessibility on the Perceptions of its Users and Surrounding Residents. Urban Science, 4(4), 79.