I am an eco-physiologist with experience working on a diverse array of taxa in a broad range of ecosystems. Most recently, I’ve been fascinated in how host-associated microbial communities can facilitate host population persistence and resilience through their ability to influence host phenotypes. I am also interested in how free-living and host-associated microbial communities can be used as biomonitoring tools of ecosystem and population health or leveraged in ecosystem restoration efforts.

Currently, I am a PhD candidate in the Poissant Lab at the University of Calgary’s Department of Ecosystem and Public Health, where I study the feral horses of Sable Island (Nova Scotia, Canada). For my thesis, I am quantifying links between horse fitness and the microbiome, while also characterizing the relative importance of genetic and non-genetic inheritance mechanisms that govern inter-generational transmission of the microbiome. In this research, I strive to characterize the consequences of variation in microbial communities for the ecology and evolution of multi-cellular life.

Prior to my PhD, I trained during my BSc and MSc in the Newman Lab at the University of Guelph’s Department of Integrative Biology, where I helped to launch an urban eastern grey squirrel study system.

Feel free to peruse my CV for more details

Education

PhD, Veterinary Medical Sciences – University of Calgary, Calgary AB (2019 – Present)
Ecology and fitness consequences of gut microbiome variation in a population of feral hindgut fermenters

MSc, Comparative Animal Physiology – University of Guelph, Guelph ON (2016 – 2018)
Urbanization of the eastern grey squirrel bacterial microbiome

BSc, Wildlife Conservation & Management – University of Guelph, Guelph ON (2011 – 2015)
Interactions between stress physiology and the bacterial microbiome in wild red squirrels