Experience Summary
My initial interest was terrestrial and behavioral ecology from a course in wildlife management I attended in Kenya, East Africa, with The School for Field Studies. After Kenya, the majority of my work experience and interest shifted to marine sciences, conservation and fisheries management. I started out as an intern/naturalist onboard a whale watcher where I gave guided talks to the public. Following my masters, I was a National Marine Fisheries Observer under the NMFS/NOAA office at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, collecting data for use in management of gillnet and trawl fisheries out of Gloucester, MA. After spending time around the cold waters of the northeast, I decided to move down to the Caribbean after accepting a job as assistant manager/environmental education coordinator for groups ages 6-40 at Virgin Islands Environmental Resource Station in St John, USVI. With goals to further my education in fisheries biology, I applied to the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez Campus, while I was a research consultant for Lee Carrubba at NOAA Fisheries Habitat Conservation Division in Cabo Rojo, southwestern PR. There I researched impacts to coastal and marine resources around PR. In my first year in August of 2006, I additionally did some consulting work for Jocelyn Karaszia at the Habitat Conservation office in West Palm Beach Florida, focusing on reef fish nursery habitats and effects from coastal construction there. Once Dr. Richard S. Appeldoorn accepted me as his student, my primary work was an assistantship under the Coral Reef Ecosystems Studies Program (CRES) and Caribbean Coral Reef Institute (CCRI). The assistantship encompassed a broad range of work, including being an editor for the bi-annual CCRI newsletter, updating CCRI/DEEP CRES websites and assisting in the development of symposiums. The focus of my PhD work included identifying various scales of spatial and temporal movement and utilization patterns and behaviors of white grunts, a commercially and ecologically important demersal reef fish in the Caribbean. After completion of my doctorate in May 2011, and knowing of several tagging, fisheries management and monitoring programs along the west coast, I chose Southern California as a transition back to the states and temperate waters.
I am also knowledgable in written and spoken Spanish.
Teaching Style
My preferred teaching style is applied learning where I encourage involvement with the lesson (ie:bringing in senses of touch, sight, smell as well as action (hikes, etc.) to capture the essence of what is being taught in addition to literature.
My Hobbies
Diving, Hiking, Outdoor Activities, etc.