My main research interests involve the role of matrix habitats (i.e., the usually degraded or human-managed lands beyond protected areas) in mammal conservation in the Neotropics.  Currently, I am an Acting Assistant Professor at the University of Washington Bothell; I also work part-time for the conservation NGO Paso Pacífico as a Conservation Scientist.

Since 2006, I have been working Dr. Ivette Perfecto of the University of Michigan on questions of biodiversity and its ecological function in agricultural systems in Central America.  Dr. Perfecto and her research group have studied many aspects of invertebrate and bird biodiversity in shade coffee plantations; however, there are few similar studies of the diversity and structure of mammalian assemblages in such agroforests, and even less information on the effects of mammals on agroecosystems.  We have been collaborating on an investigation of bats in shade coffee plantations of Chiapas, Mexico.   My research considers both the relationship between management intensity and bat assemblage structure and the effects of bat predation on arthropod populations and levels of herbivory in agroecosystems.  Current research directions include: (1) the use of molecular techniques to investigate the diets of insectivorous bats in coffee agroecosystems; (2) the availability and use of arboreal roosts by bats in coffee plantations; and (3) how the spatial structuring of ant colonies affects the distribution of bat roosts in this landscape.

I received my Ph.D. in 2003 from New York University.  For my dissertation, I studied the ecology of mantled howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata) living in a shade coffee plantation in Mombacho Volcano, Nicaragua.  This research demonstrated that shade coffee plantations can serve as core habitat for forest-adapted mammals.  From June 2003 to July 2004, I was a worked for the Saint Louis Zoo, based in Bosawás Biosphere Reserve in northern Nicaragua.  I collaborated with indigenous Miskito and Mayangna residents in Bosawás to study the population status and subsistence hunting of large mammals and birds. 

I am also a research scientist with Paso Pacífico, an NGO dedicated to conservation of Central America's remaining fragments of tropical dry forest.  This work has focused on monitoring the status of primate populations in forest fragments in western Nicaragua.  In late 2010, I started working with Paso Pacífico on a more formal basis, as their director of conservation science.  My work with them involves designing and evaluating their biodiversity monitoring programs and developing additional research programs to support their mission of conservation and restoration in Nicaragua.  I am also working to develop research in Nicaragua on the ecosystem services provided by nectarivorous and insectivorous bats.