About Me
At present, my master’s thesis is broadly focused on Integrated Pest Management within conventional row crops. Some of my current research interests and directions include, but are not limited to, studying the influences true spiders have in the realm of biological control in conventional row crops as well as assessing agroecosystem quality using microarthropods as biological indicators. The most notable project I currently work on is called the Common Experiment 2 (CE2) which is presently funded by a Precision Sustainable Agriculture grant through the USDA. The focus of this project is pest management of insects, weeds, and disease within conventional corn production and includes 16 collaborating Universities spanning the Eastern to Midwestern US from Texas to Vermont. Within this project, my responsibilities include, but are not limited to, serving as the immediate contact for protocol/ entomology-based questions, managing the data flow and analyses for all entomology-related data from all collaborators, and working with the other project leads on the synthesis of each respective discipline.
Education
MSc Entomology, 2022-Present - The Pennsylvania State University
BS Agroecology, 2015-2019 - The Pennsylvania State University
Research Experience
Penn State Entomology 2022-Present
- Manage the entomology component of Common Experiment 2 (16 states) of the Precision Sustainable Agriculture Grant
- Responsibilities include protocol troubleshooting, data collection, whole-team data flow and analyses, and fieldwork
- Augmentation experiment
- Working to quantify the role web-building spiders have as biological control agents in conventional soybeans
- Agroecosystem health
- Partnered with the Rodale Institute
- Using microarthropods as biological indicators to determine the ecosystem quality of different agricultural practices/ land-uses
- E.g., legacy no-till vs. till, organic vs. conventional, etc.
Penn State Weed Science 2021-2022
- Managed three projects of the Precision Sustainable Agriculture Grant for Dr. John Wallace
Lehigh Agricultural and Biological Services 2020-2021
Teaching Experience
TA for a graduate-level applied biostatistics course in the R programming language, Fall 2023
- Lead lectures on statistical methods
- Ran live-coding sessions on topics from lecture
- Was the immediate contact for students
TA for an undergraduate-level introduction to agronomic pests of Pennsylvania course, Spring 2023
- Created lab materials and quizzes
- Lectured on Fall Armyworm in Pennsylvania
Guest lecture for undergraduate-level introduction to agronomy course, Fall 2022 and 2023
- Lectured on insect-pests in Pennsylvania
- Developed lab with the Frost Entomological Museum for hands-on exposure to insects