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I am an NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Postdoctoral Fellow in the Phelps Lab in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin. My current research focuses on the integration of social and hormonal cues that influence social signaling behavior using a unique rodent model species, Alston's singing mouse (Scotinomys teguina). I am using a combination of behavioral, viral, molecular, and genomic approaches to investigate how singing mice integrate cues of their social context and current energetic state to determine the appropriate level of effort to dedicate to their elaborate song. Through this research I hope to understand, more broadly, how brains integrate the wide variety of factors that must be accounted for when making decisions about social behavior.
I completed my graduate work in the Bass Lab in Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University, where I investigated mechanisms alternative mating behaviors in the plainfin midshipman fish (Porichthys notatus) using a combination of lab and field behavioral experiments, next generation sequencing, in vivo neurophysiology, and immunohistochemistry. I graduated from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Biology in 2010. While at Concordia, I worked with Dr. Mikel Olson investigating molecular mechanisms of working spatial memory in rodents, and worked as an undergraduate teaching assistant.
I completed my graduate work in the Bass Lab in Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University, where I investigated mechanisms alternative mating behaviors in the plainfin midshipman fish (Porichthys notatus) using a combination of lab and field behavioral experiments, next generation sequencing, in vivo neurophysiology, and immunohistochemistry. I graduated from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Biology in 2010. While at Concordia, I worked with Dr. Mikel Olson investigating molecular mechanisms of working spatial memory in rodents, and worked as an undergraduate teaching assistant.