Of the many roles played by academic researchers the most enduring is that of an educator. I try to be an effective teacher through formal classroom instruction, group discussions, workshops, and community outreach.
I place a premium on the training of young scientists. As a laboratory manager I provided hands on training and research experience to minority high school students, two undergraduates via the NSF REU and two women from international PhD programs in Jamaica and Brazil. Each went on to publish her research based on this training.
I have continued to involve students in all facets of my research resulting in eight publications with a total of ten trainee co-authors to date. My dissertation research included the mentoring of a high school student and 11 undergraduate students (including eight women) contributing to all phases of the research process including fieldwork, molecular techniques, and data management and analysis. Two of these students completed the University of Rochester’s rigorous senior thesis program. Many of my trainees have gone on to top tier graduate programs in ecology and evolutionary biology including the American Museum of Natural History, Yale, North Carolina, UC Davis, Marquette, Stony Brook, Arizona, The University of Groningen, and Villanova. As a postdoctoral fellow I have continued my commitment to mentoring, including five women (undergraduates from Harvard and the College of the Bahamas and two PhD student at Harvard) as well as supervising European and Turkish Master’s students and three Harvard undergraduate Senior thesis projects.