Courtney is a quantitative ecologist whose research focuses on the use of large datasets to study population- and community-level processes. At MSU, Courtney is developing methods to integrate museum records with contemporary data sources to estimate long-term butterfly population trends. Courtney completed her MS and PhD at Pennsylvania State University, where she studied the community dynamics of amphibians and mammalian carnivores in the context of environmental change. Courtney was awarded a NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology.

Kayla’s research focuses on understanding the demographic and environmental factors that shape avian populations and communities. While at MSU, Kayla is collaborating with partners at USFWS and USGS to assess seabird distributions as part of the Gulf of Mexico Marine Assessment Program for Protected Species (GoMMAPPS). She is developing study design approaches for at-sea aerial surveys and models to estimate the factors influencing seabird spatial patterns. Kayla received her MS in Fish and Wildlife Conservation from Virginia Tech where she studied seabird behavior and demography.

Jeff is interested in the development and application of hierarchical models for ecological monitoring and decision making. He is developing statistical approaches to leverage a variety of data types for management and conservation of bird communities, including acoustic data, count data, and detection-nondetection data. Jeff is currently working on the development of integrated community models to evaluate the large-scale drivers of bird species-specific and community level dynamics. He completed his PhD in Forestry and an MS in Applied Statistics at MSU and a BS in mathematics and biology at SUNY Geneseo.

Wendy is broadly interested in using quantitative methods to understand and predict species dynamics and determine appropriate conservation actions. Wendy is developing data integration methods to evaluate the causes and consequence of environmental change on wildlife populations and communities. Wendy received her MS from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, where she studied avian responses to experimental ice storms and developed a lesson plan for high school students. She then worked as a biometrician at the University of Kentucky for three years. Wendy is an NRT-IMPACTS Fellow (NSF Research Traineeship – Integrated training Model in Plant And Compu-Tational Sciences).