Background

Professional Experience

Assistant Professor Wildlife and Fisheries Science, Assistant Leader Arizona Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit,

University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona (2002-Present),

Research includes Conservation Genetics, Population Genetics, Molecular Taxonomy, Paternity and Kinship, and Forensic studies in a variety of species including: several felid and canid species, black bear, water shrew, jumping mouse, bighorn sheep, raptors, muskellunge, and freshwater mussels.

Post-Doctoral Research Associate , Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences,

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, laboratory of Dr. Eric Hallerman (1999-2002)

Post-Doctoral Research includes using molecular genetic tools on a variety of conservation genetic projects targeted for wildlife management applications including: population-level study of black bears in the southeastern US using microsatellite markers, paternity and relatedness estimates in Madagascar Fish Eagles using DNA fingerprinting, individual ID and population size estimates for VA black bears using microsatellite markers, genotyping tilapia microsatellite loci to be incorporated into a linkage map of tilapia, molecular taxonomy in freshwater mussels using nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequence

Pre-Doctoral Fellow , Section of Genetics, Laboratory of Genomic Diversity, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Frederick,

Maryland and University of Maryland, laboratory of Dr. Stephen J. O’Brien (1991-1999)

Ph.D. Research ascertaining genetic variation of puma populations throughout North and South America, using several molecular markers to: characterize molecular genetic variation within the puma, identify how natural genetic differentiation is segregated within pumas, interpret the partitioning of variation within the context of evolution, propose management units for conservation purposes

Related Projects involved populations genetics, forensics, and molecular systematics for: paternity testing in several large free-ranging puma populations, kinship analyses of free-ranging puma populations, individual identification of pumas, subspecies determination and phylogenetic study of Plethodonine salamanders from DNA sequence data

Laboratory techniques include molecular based data collection and analysis including: DNA extraction from fresh tissues, saliva, hair, scat, museum hide and bone specimens; PCR based SSCP and DNA sequence analysis; automated microsatellite length polymorphism analysis, algorithms to edit and analyze DNA sequence and microsatellite data, phylogenetic programs for evolutionary relationships, statistical algorithms for population structure assessment

Research Technician , Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Salt Lake City, Utah,

Laboratory of Dr. Ray White (1985-1991)

Projects, techniques and skills acquired: developed VNTR genetic probes for use in general linkage mapping; automated DNA sequencing and primer design for microsatellite loci; constructed a 1-centimorgan map of chromosome 17; identifying the neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF 1) gene; building and screening cosmid libraries; building a physical map of the NF 1 region to identify cDNAs; SSCP analysis to look for mutations in affected patients

Laboratory Technician, University of Utah Biology Department, Salt Lake City, Utah,

Laboratory of Dr. Mario Capecchi (1983-1984)

Studied the structure of exogenously introduced nuclear genes and performed tissue culture experiments with microinjected cells

Administrative Appointments

Leader of Conservation Genetics Division, of the Conservation Management Institute (CMI), College of Natural Resources,

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.(2000-2002)