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Education:
Ph.D. Biological Sciences, South Dakota State University, 1998
M.S. Wildlife Science, South Dakota State University, 1994
B.S. Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, Northwest Missouri State
University, 1992
Research Interests:
My primary applied research interests are in understanding relationships
between organisms and their habitats in a landscape context. Critical
thresholds in abundance and spatial arrangement of habitats likely
vary among species that perceive habitat suitability on a hierarchy
of scales. Using the newest GIS and remote sensing technologies,
my students and I quantify the importance of local and landscape
attributes influencing habitat use of grassland and wetland birds
in prairie and sagebrush ecosystems.
My current research projects include:
- grassland bird conservation planning in the northern Great
Plains,
- sage-grouse research on habitat, West Nile virus, and energy
development,
- factors associated with mallard recruitment in the Great Lakes,
- risk assessment modeling to characterize factors influencing
tillage of native rangeland resources.
I have published 40 papers in peer-reviewed journals and co-authored
111 presentations at national and international conferences, 29
invited presentations to resource professionals, and 16 invited
lectures at workshops and universities. I also maintain Adjunct
Professor status at South Dakota State University (1998-). I have
further served management and scientific communities by publishing
5 book chapters, 12 extension publications, 3 literature syntheses,
and 1 book review.
Teaching:
I am a tenured Associate Professor in the Wildlife Biology
Program. My appointment is a 9-month tenure track position (67%
Teach, 33% Research). I teach courses at UM that reach a cross-section
of wildlife graduate students (Landscape Ecology WBIO560), Jr/Sr
undergraduate majors (Wildlife Habitat WBIO370) and freshman non-majors
(Wildlife & People WBIO105N). This is the first time that WBIO105N
and WBIO560 have been offered on campus. I developed WBIO105N as
an ecological literacy course for non-majors to satisfy 3 credits
of their Natural Science (Gen Ed) requirements. This course is gaining
in popularity with 100+ non-majors enrolled Fall 2006. In Spring
2002 and 2003, 42 MS and PhD students completed my new WBIO560 course.
I also completely revised and updated the WBIO370 Wildlife Habitat
course materials. Changes include six 5-hr hands-on field trips,
assignments to improve writing skills, and GIS labs to expose our
majors to new technologies. My average teaching scores on student
evaluations questions 1-4 (course content/instructor's effectiveness)
were 4.5 (WBIO105N), 4.0 (WBIO370) and 3.9 (WBIO560) on a 5.0 scale
(1 = poor and 5 = excellent). I also advise an average of 34 undergraduate
majors and sit on 8 graduate student committees.
Links:
Publications
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