People

What makes the E-MRGE GK-12 Program at the University of New Mexico so great, of course, are its people. Our program consists of 10 graduate student fellows paired with 10 6-8th Grade science teachers at middle schools in Belen, Laguna Pueblo, and Socorro, New Mexico. In addition, the program is overseen by two primary investigators, Prof. Scott L. Collins, Biology, and Prof. Laura J. Crossey, Earth & Planetary Sciences, University of New Mexico.

Fellows

Brittany Barker:B.S. Oregon State University, 2003. Brittany (a.k.a. Brit) is a doctoral student in the Department of Biology at the University of New Mexico under the advisorship of Dr. Robert B. Waide and Dr. Joe Cook. Brittany’s past and present research has dealt with topics in quantitative genetics, herpetology, biogeography, conservation biology and landscape genetics of terrestrial vertebrates (mainly reptiles, amphibians and birds). She is currently working on a historical biogeography study of two frogs in Puerto Rico that have different habitat associations. For a more detailed description of Brittany’s current research and professional accomplishments, click here. Her hobbies include drawing, painting, ultimate frisbee, hiking, birding, herping, traveling to tropical places, and exploring. Born in Oregon, Brittany has lived up and down the west coast from Los Angeles to Seattle and sometimes misses the lush, green forests. Through the GK-12 program, she strives to become an effective teacher by providing hands-on labs and activities that foster an appreciation and greater understanding of science among young students.

Andrew Edelman: B.S. Willamette University, 1999. M.S. University of Arizona, 2004. Andrew is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Biology at the University of New Mexico under the advisorship of Dr. Astrid Kodric-Brown. Andrew's past and present research has focused on the ecology and behavior of small mammals including chipmunks, tree squirrels, and kangaroo rats. Currently, Andrew is examining delayed dispersal and parental investment in banner-tailed kangaroo rats (Dipodomys spectabilis). Andrew's study area is located on the Sevilleta Wildlife Refuge near Socorro, New Mexico. Banner-tailed kangaroo rats are a keystone species of Southwestern desert grasslands that build large, dirt mounds containing extensive burrow systems and seed caches. The conspicuous mounds allow this kangaroo rat to be easily found and trapped making them excellent subjects for ecological studies. In addition, banner-tailed kangaroo rats exhibit many unusual behaviors for a small rodent. Female banner-tailed kangaroo rats allow offspring to reside at the natal mound for 2-7 months after weaning. Also, some females will bequeath mounds to offspring and move to adjacent mounds.

Leah Johnson: B.S. Cornell College, 2005. Leah is currently a M.S. candidate in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at UNM. Her research interests include paleoclimatology and isotope geochemistry. Aside from science, she loves art, dance, photography, books, and the outdoors. Leah grew up just north of Chicago, Illinois, and misses deep dish pizza.

Leah is excited to take part in the GK-12 program. Her first teaching experience was in the summer of 2000 when she worked at an ecology center summer camp as a visiting artist, designing science-related art projects for kids and leading instruction. Leah worked in a tutoring center after college, where she was able to interact with students of all ages and abilities in a variety of subjects. Recently, she had the opportunity to teach college level environmental science lab classes as a graduate student.

Jessica C. Lopez-Pearce: B.S. University of Arizona, 2001. Jessica is a M.S. student in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences at UNM. Her research interests include tectonics, sedimentology, geochemistry, and geoscience education. She is currently studying the role of groundwater in the deposition of the Hualapai Limestone of the Grand Wash Trough in Arizona and Nevada.

Jessica has been interested in the geosciences since she was very young and her parents took her on family road trips through the national parks. Since then, she has worked as a Park Ranger at Sunset Crater National Monument, Grand Canyon National Park, and Mesa Verde National Park, where she taught visitors about the parks’ unique natural and cultural histories. Jessica decided to return to graduate school after working for the National Park Service and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe so she could further study the geology of the American southwest and acquire geosciences teaching skills. Jessica currently lives in Albuquerque but her home is in northern Arizona where her husband, Dave, and parents reside. 

Juliana S. Medieros: B.S. University of New Mexico, 2000; M.S. University of New Mexico, 2004. Juliana is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in the UNM Department of Biology.  Her research interests include plant physiological ecology of arid and semi-arid ecosystems, and her dissertation focuses on physiological adaptations to freezing in the genus Larrea.  She enjoys spending time in the field in New Mexico and Central Mexico, as well as many hours in the greenhouse and lab.  Her interest in plants was preceded by an interest in human physiological adaptations, and as an undergraduate she studied biological anthropology.  Her first experience with plants was growing a garden with her son, where she became fascinated with the ways in which plants are physiologically adapted to their environments.  She has spent the last 9 years practicing and teaching science at both college and K12 levels, and particularly enjoys helping students answer their own questions using the scientific process.  An environmentalist from a very young age, Juliana has also delved into the field of sustainability, and hopes to inspire an ethic of environmental stewardship in her students.  Through the GK12 program Juliana looks forward to gaining the experience she needs to become a leader in scientific education while at the same time empowering young people to pursue their dreams.

Anthony C. Salem: B.S. Arizona State University, 1999; M.S. Arizona State University, 2005. Tony is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences at UNM. His research interests include structural geology and tectonics, orogenic systems, geology of the southwestern U.S., and geoscience education. He is currently studying the kinematics and timing of brittle and ductile deformation events in response to oceanic plate subduction along the southwestern margin of North America during the Mesozoic Era in southeastern California.

Jessica R. Snider: B.S. Texas State University 1999. Jessica is currently working on her Ph.D. in the Biology Department.  Her research interests include cave ecology, nutrient cycling in cave systems and surface/subsurface interactions in karst environments and science education and communication. Jessica’s dissertation research is investigating microbial communities and nutrient cycling related to roots growing into cave systems. Jessica first got interested in exploring caves in 1996 as a freshman at Texas State University. As a member of the Southwest Texas and Hays County Cave Clubs, she has caved in Texas and Mexico.  While living in Tokyo, Japan, she started to get very interested in cave formation and cave biology.  She later returned to the U.S. and then joined the Northup/Pockman labs at UNM. 

Jessica grew up the daughter of professors and was taught the importance of the education from a young age.  She haa been engaged in some form of education for most of her life, from tutoring to teaching English as a Second Language, and is currently very interested in how to teach science to students of all ages and to the general public. This led to her desire to work with the GK-12 program. As part of the program, Jessica is working in collaboration with fellows Tony Salem and Brittany Barker and teachers Daniel Cano (main teacher), Carissa Green and Kim Orphal on developing multidisciplinary lessons.

Mel Strong: B.S. (Geology) California State University Sacramento, 1998; M.S. (Geology) Washington State University, 2001. Mel is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at UNM.  His dissertation work is based upon discovering the source of atmospheric water vapor in New Mexico.  Consequently, his research is multidisciplinary in nature, including meteorology, climate, stable isotope geochemistry, and atmospheric chemistry.  The core of his research involves collecting air samples from New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas, both at ground level and in the air in his experimental aircraft.  His previous research was in volcanology, where he discovered new details on how basaltic magma travels through the crust.

Jason Thomas: B.S. University of Alaska Southeast, 2003. Jason is a doctoral student in the Department of Biology a the University of New Mexico. His advisor is Joseph Cook, Curator of Mammals at the Museum of Southwestern Biology at UNM.  His current research is on the phylogenetic structure of the Sin Nombre Hantavirus in the southwest. He has been gathering data of genetic sequences of the Sin Nombre virus around New Mexico.  Had he known that Hantavirus is so hard to work with he might have chosen some thing else to study, but too late for that now.  He is also working with Jerry Dragoo on the phylogenetics of Peromyscus maniculatus. This small rodent is the zoonotic host of the Sin Nombre virus in the wild.

During the first year and a half of graduate school he studied yeast genomics in Dr. Margret Werner-Washburne's laboratory.  His research was focused on the changes that happen in Saccharomyces cerevisiae during growth to stationary phase.  More can be read about this on the education and research page.

Over the last few years he has had the opportunity to do some mammal trapping around New Mexico.  This has allowed him to learn more about the small critters that my research currently focuses on. His interests in science all have to do with evolution.  

This semester he is taking a class on speciation with one of his committee members, Vaishali Katju, and it is proving to be very interesting.

Robin Warne: Robin's research interests include resource dynamics in ecological communities as well as the ecology, physiology and evolution of life histories. In his current research, Robin examines the linkage between resource dynamics at the community level with allocation patterns in individual consumers. Robin hasexplored these processes by (1) linking abiotic drivers to temporal resource dynamics in food webs; and (2) investigating how such resource variation affects the reproductive allocation strategies of lizards.

Teachers

Theresa Apodaca: 6th Grade Science, Sarracino Middle School, Socorro, NM

Destini Baldonado: 8th Grade Science, Sarracino Middle School, Socorro, NM

Yolanda Batrez: 6-8th Grade Science, Laguna Middle School, Laguna Pueblo, NM

Daniel Cano: 7th and 8th Grade Science, Belen Middle School, Belen, NM

Carissa Green: 7th and 8th Grade Science, Belen Middle School, Belen, NM

Kenda Meathenia: 7th Grade Science, Belen Middle School, Belen, NM

Kim Orphal: 8th Grade Science, Belen Middle School, Belen, NM

Program Directors (P.I.'s)

Scott L. Collins: Scott's research investigates the role of climate variability, fire and herbivores on community structure and ecosystem processes in mesic and arid grasslands in North America and South Africa. Scott is currently a Professor of Biology at the University of New Mexico and the Principal Investigator on the Sevilleta Long-term Ecological Research Program (LTER). The overarching goal of the Sevilleta LTER, established in 1989, is to understand how abiotic drivers and constraints affect dynamics and stability in aridland populations, communities, and ecosystems. Using both long term measurements and experimental manipulations, Scott and his colleagues are particularly interested in determining how global environmental change will affect moisture inputs and losses, biogeochemical cycles, and responses by producers and consumers.

Scott has worked extensively in tallgrass prairie as part of the Konza Prairie Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) Program since 1988. Scott is also involved in a multi-institution Ecosystem Convergence research project comparing fire, climate and herbivore effects on tallgrass prairie in North America (Konza Prairie) and mesic savanna grassland in Kruger National Park and the Ukulinga Research Farm in South Africa.

Laura J. Crossey: Ph.D. University of Wyoming, 1985. Laura is a Professor in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences at the University of New Mexico, specializing in sedimentary geochemistry. Laura's research interests include clastic diagenesis, aqueous and organic geochemistry, and geomicrobiology, with emphasis on interaction of organic and inorganic constituents of sedimentary rocks during progressive burial. Laura's research approach includes field examination of modern early diagenetic environments (biogeochemistry of water and sediments) as well as core and outcrop evaluations of sandstone and shale diagenesis.

Laura has advised over 35 undergraduate theses and 30 MS and PhD graduates students at UNM. She also served as Associate Dean for the College of Arts & Sciences for three years. She has also been active in obtaining funding for graduate and undergraduate training through NSF's Education and Human Resources division: she has been Co-investigator on two IGERT awards from NSF (in Freshwater Sciences). She is dedicated to increasing minority participation in the geosciences (and sciences in general) and has serves as the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation PI for the past 6 years, and is PI on an LSAMP Bridges to the Doctorate program in 2008-2010. At the state level, she serves on the Governor's Math/Science Advisory Council (2007-2010), and was a member of the State Science Standards Committee which completed the existing NM state science standards for K-12 in 2004. She is actively engaged in Geoscience outreach and informal education: with her husband, Karl Karlstrom, she is Co-investigator in an NSF funded geoscience exhibit at Grand Canyon (the Trail of Time) slated for completion in 2010, and has been featured in several science documentaries: "Grand Canyon" and "The Rockies" on the National Geographic channel.