Past Schulte Lab Personnel

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Past Graduate Students

 

Jennifer Young Harper, 2001.  Jenny is a Professor at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College: 

 

 

 

 

Helen Loizi, 2004.  Helen and her husband own a 7000 sq ft Wellness/Physical Therapy office which includes yoga, indoor tennis and golf, massage therapy, and personal training.

 

 

 

 

Chifuyu Horikoshi, 2004.  Chifuyu completed her PhD at Massey University in New Zealand in 2017: Non-breeding ecology of New Zealand falcon (Falconovaeseelandiae) in a pine plantation forest. She's a wildlife biologist and serves as a lecturer at a vocational school in New Zealand.

 

 

 

 

Kathryn R. Bagley Vyas, 2004.  Director of Animal Wellness and Research at Denver Zoo. Married to Dhaval Vyas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jessica R. Brzyski, 2005.  Jessica is Associate Professor of Biology at Seton Hill University, Greensburg, PA.

 

 

 

 

 

Christen E. Merte, 2006.  Christen received a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from  Michigan State University. Following her graduation in May 2013 from MSU College of Veterinary Medicine, she planned to continue her professional career at Plum Island Animal Disease Center In New York.  Sadly, Christen passed away on August 14, 2013.

 

 

 

Dhaval K. Vyas, 2006. Teaching Assistant Professor at Denver University

Dhaval obtained his PhD candidate at Colorado State University working with Paul Ode on a project exploring parasitic wasps and the biological control of a pest caterpillar. His research used laboratory and field experiments to examine competitive exclusion between two species of parasitic wasps. Dhaval is originally from Maryland. He has a BA in Animal Behavior from Bucknell University and an MS in Biology from Georgia Southern University. Field research projects on primates, rhinoceros, and elephants have taken himto the wilds of Puerto Rico, South Africa, Tanzania and Thailand. Outside of academics, he has worked as a zookeeper, environmental planner, and animal behaviorist. Personal interests include dog training, backpacking, birding, wildlife photography, and competitive eating. He is married to Katie Bagley Vyas.

 

Jordana M. Meyer, 2006.  Jordie obtained her PhD at Stanford University  and is the Founder of Wildtrax Explorations Wildlife Conservation Programs that she operates with Dhaval Vyas. She lives in South Africa with her husband and their child.

 

 

Ryan Berger, 2007. Sonoma Coasts Preserves Manager for The Wildlands Conservancy.

 

 

 

 

Erek Napora, 2007.  Erek is farming/homesteading in TN/VA with his wife and three children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rhea M. M. Esposito, 2008.  Rhea completed a PhD in Behavioral Ecology in December 2015 at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette.  Curriculum Developer at National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) in Boulder Colorado:

 

 

 

 

Stacie Castelda Bickley, 2008. Serves at a biologist with the EPA and previously was an adjunct professor at George Mason University.

Stacie received her M.Sc. at Georgia Southern University in 2008 and completed her PhD at George Mason University/Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.  Stacie’s research interest includes behavioral ecology, conservation biology, non-invasive wildlife monitoring, and human-wildlife conflicts.

 

 

 

 

Nabil Nasseri, 2009. Assistant Professor at Glenville State University: Married to Emily with their first child born in 2023. He obtained his PhD at the University of Vermont. His PhD dissertation research looked at the the direct and indirect effects of an ant-hemipteran mutualism on the invertebrate community structure and their host plant, mesquite in south Texas. He is interested in the reciprocal interactions or feedback loops between host plant quality and the ant-hemipteran mutualism and their effect on driving the invertebrate community.

 

 

Rebekah Karimi, 2009.  Bekah is currently working in wildlife biology in Kenya.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carly Sinderbrand York, 2011.  Carly completed her PhD in 2016 at Old Dominion University and is currently Associate Profossor of Biology at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, NC.

 

 

 

Malgorzata Wisniewska, 2011.  Maggie completed PhD in 2021 at Rutgers/NJIT.

 

 

 

 

 

Russell Blogg, 2012. Russ is a district heritage biologist with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. He is married with three children.

 

 

 

 

Margaret Rose Hook, 2012.  Maggie was Instructor of Human Anatomy & Physiology at Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College. She and her husband Jake Fose now live with their family in Minnesota and works at South Central College - North Mankato Campus as a science tutor as part of the academic support center staff.

 

 

 

Kelly Derham, 2014.  Kelly is an adjunct instructor of biology and classroom support specialist at Temple University in Philadelphia.  She is also the Development Coordinator for Science Connected, a non-profit STEM organization. She and Gregory Barren were married in 2022 and welcomed their son that year as well.

 

 

 

 

Sarah Goodyear, 2015.  Sarah is an analytical specialist at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in Rensselaer. She is married (Faas) with a daughter.

 

 

 

 

Charlotte Hacker, 2015. Charlotte is a Wildlife Biologist at the US Fish and Wildlife Service in the Division of International Affairs. She completed her PhD at Duquesne University studying snow leopards with Dr. Jan Janecka.

 

 

 

 

Chase LaDue, 2016. Chase is a research scientist at the Oklahoma City Zoo. He obtained his PhD at George Mason University working with Dr. Elizabeth Freeman. His research was on male Asian elephants in Sri Lanka and facilities in North America. He was married in 2022.

 

 

 

 

Lauren McCaslin, 2019. After completing her MSc at WKU, Lauren moved to Alaska to work as a cetacean biologist.

 

 

 

 

Brigit Rooney, 2019. In 2022 Brigit works as Camera Trap Survey Coordinator for the Snapshot USA project run by the Smithsonian's Conservation Biology Institute.

 

 

 

 

 

 R. Lynn Von Hagen, 2019. Lynn completed her PhD at Auburn University and is now the Director of African Conservation at the Denver Zoo.

 

 

 

 

 

Sophia Corde, 2022. Sophia completed her MS in Biology at WKU in 2022. Currently, she is a doctoral candidate in the School of Marine and Environmental Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of South Alabama. Sophia will be conducting a study on human impacts on West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus) populations in the northern Gulf of Mexico.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dakota Vaccaro, 2023. Dakota graduated in 2019 from the University of Montana with a B.S degree in wildlife biology and has over 6 years of experience conducting wildlife research. From bears to birds, her past work has involved radio telemetry, raptor and songbird banding, wildlife rehabilitation work, and more.  Dakota spent June-December of 2022 conducting her research with our Elephants and Sustainable Agriculture in Kenya (ESAK) project, examining the effects of Elephant Habitat Modification (EHM) on wildlife species richness and diversity as we search for ecological indicators of human elephant conflict, notably crop raiding. Dakota is taking time after her MSc to work on manuscripts as she considers doctoral programs.

 

 

MATT BOWERS completed his Master’s in Biology at Western Kentucky University in 2024. Matt has a BS in Wildlife Science and a minor in International Agriculture from Penn State University. As an undergraduate, he spent a semester studying abroad and conducting research in Tanzania and Kenya. Before starting graduate school, Matt worked as a research field technician for Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania, where he primarily studied the American Kestrel. Matt’s thesis research  focused on the relationship between an indigenous climate-smart agricultural technique called the zai pit as a means to enhance food security.