Permit # TE-34570A
LAB ASSISTANT (SUMMER 2014)
Fluidigm Corporation
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I was a Research and Development intern studying genomic Copy Number Variation (CNV) where my experiments were helping produce a protocol for the company's new Single Cell machine. I conducted various experiments using multiple techniques to analyze, document and track CNV within DNA samples. While in the lab, I was able to partake in Real-time qPCR, and Digital PCR, and prepared samples for Next Generation Sequencing (NGS). At the end of the summer my job was to complete comprehensive documentation of my lab results and give a presentation to the company's board members.
BIOLOGY INTERN (2016 and 2017)
Nova Atlantis Foundation-Azores
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Nova Atlantis' focus is studying the social ecology of the resident male pods of Risso's dolphin (Grampus griseus) around Pico Island, Azores. Interns conducted monitoring surveys both from land and sea, for all cetacean species. Field work included data collection on and off water, processing and analysis, assisting with the drone flights, as well as photo ID work, and video footage. During the summer time the females and nursery pods come to Pico to give birth to their calves, and our team does our best to ID calves with mothers as well as possible mating pairs. In November 2018 Nova Atlantis debuted their documentary "Scars: The Politics of the Big Blue".
Photo By: Heather Barrett
SURVEY SLUGS PROGRAM MENTOR (2017-2018)
University of California, Santa Cruz
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Every quarter a team of mentors would get four undergraduate students to train and educate on how to become part of the Marine Mammal Stranding Network within Santa Cruz county. These students learned how to collect data on the dead marine mammals, and gain proper field work skills. They also participated in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) marine debris program while we were on assigned beaches.
SNOWY PLOVER INTERN (SUMMER 2013)
San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory
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I spent the summer of 2012 waking up before the birds, in order to monitor the threatened Snowy Plover (Charadrius nivosus). As interns, our job involved surveying salt ponds in the South Bay Area to monitor breeding pairs and help us determine nesting and fledgling success. We made egg hatching estimations, banded chicks, identified predators in the area, and monitored the chicks through the time that they fledged. I also completed data entry for the Snowy Plover project, Waterfowl projects and Gull surveys.
MARINE MAMMAL AND BIRDS- STUDENT (SUMMER 2015)
FRIDAY HARBOR MARINE LABORATORIES
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The summer of 2015 I was fortunate enough to pack my car up and head to the San Juan Islands, WA. At Friday Harbor Marine Laboratories I received a fast paced, in depth course on marine mammals and birds. Throughout our class we learned multiple field work techniques, and each student was required to produce a research project that we would execute and give a presentation during the final week of class. My partners and I's project was "Marine bird abundance and Tidal Phases of the San Juan Channel, Washington".
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VERTEBRATE ECOLOGY INTERN (2016-2018)
Moss Landing Marine Laboratories
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As an intern in the Vertebrate Ecology lab, I was fortunate enough to partake in various projects. I assisted in Northern Elephant Seal (Mirounga angustirostris) demographic studies at Año Nuevo State reserve, photo ID for long term Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) studies, acoustics for Risso's dolphins (Grampus griseus) in Monterey Bay, and anthropogenic impacts on Sea Otters (Enhydra lutris) throughout Monterey County. While interning here I also became part of the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, who responds to all the dead marine mammals in order to take data and get a better understanding of the organisms and ecosystem.
GRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANT (2019- Current)
VOLUNTEER (2018-2019)
California Academy of Sciences
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As a volunteer I assisted with organizing the Ornithology and Mammalogy museum collection, helped with the Marine Mammal Stranding Network recording data about dead cetaceans and pinnipeds and collected samples from necessary dead specimens. I helped with the regional Harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) survey during their pupping season, looking at anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic disturbances while recording population numbers. This past year I also participated in the majority of the necropsies for the Gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) unusual mortality event (UME) in the San Francisco Bay Area. Now as a graduate research assistant my main focus is analyzing stranding network data and looking for spatiotemporal trends, however I still participate with some of these projects.