People

Mason Henry graduated in May 2023 and joined the Scott Loss lab at Oklahoma State University as a field technician. He worked with graduate student Tucker Taylor to study the interplay between birds and the ticks they carry, and woody plant encroachment in grasslands. He's now employed by the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology as a museum and field research assistant.

Nitse returned to Sac City College for a final year in preparation for transfer to a four-year institution, which will be (drumroll please....) ...UC Davis as a major in Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology! Congratulations, Nitse! In the meantime, they continue to conduct research in the Laskowski lab and to serve as a DJ for KDVS.

Brandon, who hails from the eastern Sierra, comes to the EEWL REU as a transfer from Santa Barbara City College. He will complete his undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley. GrrrrrRAH!

Molly graduated from Sonoma State University in May 2023. After a fellowship with the California Climate Action Corps at St. Mary's College in Moraga to teach regenerative agriculture techniques, she began a position as an ecosteward conservation technician with the Contra Costa Resource Conservation District.

Brooke Culler incorporated her EERREC research into a senior honors thesis, and will soon begin a MS program at Cal Poly Humboldt. In June 2024, Brooke wrote, "The work did with Dr. Meineke is still ongoing! We're currently working together, along with several other co-authors, to get that research published... I'm also working as an on-call biologist for an environmental consulting company while I pursue my masters at Cal Poly Humboldt."

Kenny is headed back to California by way of Wisconsin! Kenny will join the Peery Wildlife Ecology + Conservation lab at the University of Wisconsin, where he will work on a program to remove invasive barred owls from forests in Mendocino County.

Avery, a 2023 graduate of Elon College, has a position with the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute as a Reintroduction Assistant. She'll work to reintroduce vulnerable species, such as Lake Sturgeon, brook trout, darters, and other aquatic animals, back into the Tennessee River. In Fall 2024, Avery will join the lab of Kit Wheeler at Tennessee Tech to study the federally threatened Spotfin Chub.

Philip is doing a year-long internship at Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio, where he will monitor and assess wetland health in the park. His position is supported by the Scientists in Parks (SIP) program with Conservation Legacy. His responsibilities include piloting a bioacoustics computational analysis pipeline that uses R to pair a birdcall ID model from Cornell with a streamlined human verification process, with the goal of detecting cryptic wetland birds that are often missed when conventional point count survey methods are used.