I am a PhD student studying trailing edge population dynamics of a suite of songbird species in the southern Appalachian Mountains. I grew up in Rhode Island and later got my bachelor’s in wildlife science from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. After graduating, I worked for the NY Department of Environmental Conservation identifying suitable areas for Ruffed Grouse habitat management throughout the state of New York. I then returned to school and completed my master’s at the University of Georgia studying the effects of climate and land use change on black vulture range expansion and human-vulture conflict. In my current research, I hope to develop new frameworks for quantifying individual fitness and use novel tracking technologies to understand natal dispersal and its contributions to climate-driven range shifts in Canada warblers and black throated blue warblers.