Biography

I am a broadly trained ecologist specializing in watershed ecosystems. I am particularly interested in developing novel strategies for accelerating the recovery of critical ecosystem services (e.g., wave attenuation, habitat provisioning, and nutrient cycling) in restored and created coastal ecosystems, such as tidal marshes. My recent projects focus on how animal ecosystem engineers can be leveraged to promote restoration and management practices. For instance, I have active studies evaluating the impacts of fiddler crab burrows on the recovery of salt marsh plant communities and sediments along the New England, mid-Atlantic, and Gulf coasts as well as studies testing the value of freshwater mussels for promoting water quality and shoreline resilience in blue infrastructure projects along the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers in Philadelphia.