My research expertise is in community ecology, macroecology and biogeography. I am interested in how multi-species communities vary across space and the ways in which this variation arises from the confluence of ecological processes, geography, and scale. My current research projects examine both communities of lichens and microorganismal communities within lichens, with the goal of understanding how host traits mediate the interaction between symbiont community variation and the distribution of host species in the environment.

I am passionate about teaching quantitative and data analysis skills in science courses and about helping students develop scientific ways of thinking by participating in authentic research experiences inside and outside the classroom.