I am interested in just about any aspect of wildlife and ecology, but my main focus is in wildlife disease ecology. I worked as an epidemiologist in the public health sector for about five years. But I am now refocusing my career to study wildlife. In the summer of 2021, I had the pleasure of working on a statewide assessment of alligator snapping turtles with the University of Houston. Since then, I worked as an assistant keeper at Zoo Knoxville before starting my graduate program at UT. I am honored to be a part of the FWF Department and to have the opportunity to study the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). My research will combine fieldwork and mathematical modeling to better understand the factors influencing long-term Bd persistence in amphibian species in eastern Tennessee.