Forest health deals with invasive and emerging diseases and insects for the purpose of preventing and controlling them. As such, my research focuses on forest health-related issues that arise, i.e., determining the causes of issues that arise, improving the way in which we monitor for problems and improving methods to help avoid future issues all in order to keep forests productive. I am also very interested in helping improve our baseline understanding of the fungal players here in Louisiana forests as there is much information in this area that is lacking in regards to the disease-causers, the wood-decayers, and the beneficial microorganisms.