I am currently an Associate Professor and Assistant Chair in the Department of Biology. I am a native of the Great Plains having been born and raised in Nebraska, living inSouth Dakota and Missouri, before coming to Oklahoma. I earned a B.S. in biology from Wayne State College, Nebraska; an M.S. in biology from theUniversity of South Dakota, Vermillion and a Ph.D. in forestry from theUniversity of Missouri. I come from a family of teachers in which my mom, dad and sister are all educators.
The project that we have been doing, as part of the Prairie Project, has been investigating fire effects at different spatial and temporal scales at the Selman Living Laboratory (SLL).The SLL experienced wildfires in 2016 and 2017. We have observed changes in vegetation using the Rangeland Analysis Platform. We analyzed a long-term dataset to assess post-fire recovery. Lastly, we took a weekend field trip to observe the effects of fire based on topographic variability. Students compiled a lab report that addressed observations made using different spatial and temporal scales.
