I
grew up in West Sussex, England and have since lived
in California, Washington and Oregon. I attended the
University of Puget Sound (UPS) in Tacoma, Washington
for my undergraduate, where I graduated with a B.S.
in Biology.
At
UPS I focused on marine ecology issues and particularly invasive species. I completed
a senior environmental studies project on the biodiversity and effect of invasive
species on a local city park. My senior honors thesis was on the interaction between
local sea star species and two species of mussel, one of which was invasive to
the Puget Sound region.
After finishing my Bachelors degree, I studied at the Bamfield Marine Sciences
Centre in British Columbia where my focus turned towards endangered species. There
I completed a study on the behavioral response of the Marbled Murrelet to the
floating corkline that is associated with a gillnet. Murrelets are often caught
in gillnets and my study examined the behavioral responses to the line above water.
While in Bamfield, I also completed a study on island biogeography, examining
a pattern of nested recruitment of organisms in tidepools based on their volume.
My
current research interests are with endangered species
biology, and conservation biology based on ecosystem
wide processes. At HPU my research focuses on evaluating
the threat to Black-footed and Laysan Albatross from
ocean debris such as plastic. I am interested in the
link between Albatross feeding locations and the oceanic
processes that accumulate both the natural Albatross
food source and plastic debris.
I
defended his thesis on December 201o
After
graduating from HPU, I worked at the Kaena
Point Ecosystem Restoration Project, in O'ahu and went to get a Ph.D. at UH Manoa.
