Mentorship

I truly love to teach.  However, living in remote locations far from universities makes it difficult to adopt traditional instructor roles.  Instead, I have used my research as a platform for intensive mentorship for undergraduate, postgraduate, and REU students interested in pursuing a scientific career of their own.  My research informs my mentorship, and mentees inform the research.

I strive to guide mentees through as much of the scientific process as possible- from study design to manuscript preparation.  Because I am a field ecologist, mentees gain a very broad research experience- they may be learning how to tie bowline knots and coil line on Monday, how to visualize data in R on Tuesday, and how to construct research talks on Wednesday.

Since my first field season in 2013, I have mentored dozens of young scientists over thousands of mentorship hours. I am always seeking new ways to increase the value and impact of my mentorship.  For example, undergraduate mentees have received college credit through this partnership, while others joined my Coral Reef Ecosystem Processes program as REU students, resulting in the publication of multiple REU-led research papers.  Most go on to pursue successful scientific careers in agencies or academia, though others move into industries (or switch fields entirely).  Meet some of them over on the people page!