Research Interests

I am interested in activities that promote academic success for STEM undergraduates, in particular first-generation students. I teach two of our Introductory Biology courses (Evolution and Ecology; Phylogenetics and Tree of Life), as well as associated co-classes. As Associate Dean for Undergraduate Academic Programs for CBS (2012 to 2018), I hypothesized that gaps in academic performance could be reduced by a combination of support structures. Working with Joel Ledford, we created successful co-classes for first-generation students (2016 to present). Other collaborations with colleagues in Classics, Philosophy, and History led to expanded offerings to support STEM students within the General Education program. The role of visual media in teaching biology underpins my NSF-funded Research Collaborative Network VISABLI (with Jodie Jenkinson and Gael McGill), and I focus on using images and text to increase student understanding as lead author for two textbooks (Animal Diversity and Integrated Principles of Zoology) and their associated lab manuals.