Alumni

Graduate Student and Post Doctoral Alumni

Graduate Students

Monica Cooper

PhD Dissertation (2026): The Structure, Demography, and Viability of an Archipelagic Carnivore

Currently a Quantitative Ecologist at Colorado State University

Yushi Oguchi

PhD Dissertation (2026): Intestinal Digestive Enzyme Modulation Mechanism in Omnivorous Birds and Mammals

Rudi Boekschoten

M.S Thesis (2026): Context dependent effects of large carnivores on mesocarnivores: pumas and foxes in Patagonia

Currently a Gentleman Farmer

Rebecca Chandross

M.S Thesis (2026): Snowshoe hare cycles at their southern range boundary: cyclic erosion and island persistence

Currently a Scientist I at Thermofisher Scientific

Shotaro Shiratsuru

PhD Dissertation (2025): Understanding the mechanisms and consequences of predator-prey interactions: the traits of prey and predators interact with winter conditions to mediate the food-safety trade-off

Currently a Postdoc at Trinity College Dublin

Spencer Keyser

PhD Dissertation (2024): Ecology and conservation in seasonal environments

Currently a Postdoc at Cornell University 

Emma Blackdeer

M.S. Thesis (2024): Mechanisms for digestion of a varied diet in a group of forest carnivores  

Corbin Kuntze

PhD Dissertation (2024): The effects of spatial heterogeneity on predators, prey, and their interactions  

Currently a Postdoc in the Pauli Lab

Gonzalo Barceló

Postdoctoral Fellow (2025)

PhD Dissertation (2024):The trans-hemispherical role of an apex predator: Foraging, energetic and behavioral ecology of Puma concolor

Currently a Postdoc in Chile with ANID (National Association of Research and Development)

Mauriel Rodriguez Curras

PhD Dissertation (2024): Carnivore community structure in a changing world

M.S. Thesis (2019) : Humans affect every major niche axis in a community of competing carnivores

Currently a Postdoc at University of California- Berkeley

Matt Smith

Postdoctoral Fellow (2024)

PhD Dissertation (2023) : Mechanisms of species recovery for a forest carnivore in a changing landscape
Aldo Leopold Scholar

Currently a Postdoc at Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute

Lydia Druin

M.S. Thesis (2023): Quantifying connectivity: a recovery network of American martens (Martes americana) in the upper Great Lakes region

Currently a Scientist-in-Parks Ecology Assistant with the National Park Service Greater Yellowstone Network

Sam Jolly

M.S. Thesis (2023): Spatiotemporal analysis of small mammal populations: implications for American marten recovery

Currently a biologist with the U.S. Forest Service

Burcu Lacin Alas

M.S. Thesis (2022): The repatriation of wolves to Isle Royale alter the foraging of mesocarnivores

Penelope Murphy

M.S. Thesis (2022): Survival of ruffed grouse color morphs in seasonally snow-covered forests

Currently a natural resources scientist at Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

Malena Candino

M.S. Thesis (2022): Moving through a heterogeneous landscape: Migration and habitat selection of a guanaco population in a seasonal environment

Currently a science communications research specialist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison

Taylor Peltier

M.S. Thesis (2022): Phenotypic variation in the molt characteristics of the snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus)

Currently a Ph.D. student at Utah State University

Kimberly Thompson

PhD Dissertation (2021): The Abiotic Characteristics and Ecological Consequences of a Deteriorating Subnivium

Currently a Postdoc at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research

Evan Wilson

PhD Dissertation (2021): Mechanisms of Community Disassembly Along a Southern Range Boundary

Currently a Postdoc at Michigan State University

Brad Smith

M.S. Thesis (2021): Carnivore resource use and competition under rapid environmental change: the diet of fishers (Pekania pennanti) and martens (Martes caurina) in the Sierra Nevada mountains during drought and tree mortality

Currently a program manager at U.S. Forest Service-Northern Region

Tiffany Bougie

M.S. Thesis (2020): Demography Informed Species Recovery: Quantifying Wood Turtle (Glyptemys insculpta) vital rates, population viability, and effects of management actions in Wisconsin

Currently a wildlife biologist with Michigan Department of Natural Resources

Ally Scott

M.S. Thesis (2020): Small Mammal Communities in Changing Environments

Currently the Deputy Tribal Climate Resilience Liaison at the Midwest Climate Adaptation Science Center

Julian Padro

Postdoctoral Fellow (2020): Andean condor conservation genetics. 

Currently a Research Assistant at CONICET in Argentina

Paula Perrig

PhD Dissertation (2019): Apex scavengers in a changing world: historical demography and future conservation of Andean condors

M.S. Thesis (2015): Predation subsidizes an obligate scavenger in the Andes

Currently a Postdoc at CONICET in Argentina

Marie Marten

M.S. Thesis (2019): Exploring the energetic and spatial ecology of Pacific martens in Lassen National Forest, CA.
Annie Alexander Award

Currently a Faculty Research Assistant at Oregon State University Institute for Natural Resources

Julia Poje

M.S. Thesis (2019): Impacts of Environmental Conditions on Prairie Dog Fleas: Implications for Sylvatic Plague

Phil Manlick

Ph.D. Dissertation (2019): Landscape-mediated niche dynamics in North American Carnivores
Aldo Leopold Scholar

M.S. Thesis (2015): Mechanisms of delayed recovery in reintroduced American martens 

Currently a research wildlife ecologist at the USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station

Megan Fitzpatrick

Postdoctoral Fellow (2018)

Currently a biologist with Minnesota DNR

Mario Garces Restrepo

Ph.D. Dissertation (2018): Reproductive Ecology and Conservation of Sloths in Costa Rica 

Currently the technical director of Biota at Proinsa LTDA in Colombia

Kristina Black

M.S. Thesis (2018): The Great Lakes region is a melting pot for vicariant red fox (Vulpes vulpes) populations through natural expansion and fur-farm translocations

Currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Texas at Austin

Jen Grauer

M.S. Thesis (2017): Demography and genetics of reintroduced American martens

Currently a Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University

Becky Kirby

Ph.D. Dissertation (2016):Foraging Ecology and aging of black bears in human-modified landscapes

Currently a regional wildlife ecologist at the U.S. Forest Service-Southwestern Region

Emily Fountain

Postdoctoral Fellow

Currently a Research Associate at the University of Wisconsin

Wynne Moss

M.S. Thesis (2015): Mountain lion foraging in the Colorado Front Range
FWE Outstanding Thesis

Currently a Postdoc at Conservation Science Partners

Sean Sultaire

M.S. Thesis (2014): Climate change and snowshoe hares

Currently a Postdoc at University of Montana

John Pokallus

M.S. Thesis (2014): Population dynamics of a northern-adapted mammal in response to climate change and an altered predator community

Currently a game warden for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department

Jorge Mendoza

M.S. Thesis (2014): Resource use by two-and three-toed sloths differ in a shade-grown agro-ecosystem.

Currently the STEM Exploration and Engagement Scholars Program Manager at Ohio State University

Undergraduate Alumni (Senior Thesis)

Phoenix Innis

Senior thesis (2024): Top-down and bottom-up processes mediate the diet of red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) on Isle Royale in the aftermath of the gray wolf (Canis lupus) reintroduction

Alivia Arredondo

Senior thesis (2024): Whitebark Pine: a surprisingly important dietary item to American martens

Isabel Field

Senior thesis (2024): Anthropogenic food consumption influences the nutritional condition and reproductive rates of hunter-harvested black bears in Wisconsin

Sabrina Zhao

Senior thesis (2023): The introduction of an exotic carnivore: stone martens in Wisconsin 

Betty Chu

Senior thesis (2023): Mating strategies of the porcupine community based on parentage

Grace Nugent

Senior thesis (2022): Distribution and sympatry of snowshoe hares and cottontail rabbits in Wisconsin

Clare Knife

Senior thesis (2021): Genetic structure of the Moquah Barrens sharp-tailed grouse translocation

Michaela Rudolf

Senior thesis (2021): Consequences of variable winter conditions on nutritional condition and mortality of porcupines (Erethizon dorsatum) in central Wisconsin

Kate Silverthorne

Senior Thesis (2019): Niche Partitioning in Communities Featuring Different Avian Scavenger Richness

Aleana Savage

Senior Thesis (2018): Assessing the Colonization History of the Isle Royale Red Squirrel: Tamiasciurus hudsonicus regalis

Shelby Petersen

Senior Thesis (2017): Eltonian niche conservatism of martens across the Pacific Northwest

Rachel Larson

Senior Thesis (2017): The genetic structure of American black bear (Ursus americanus) populations in the southern Rocky Mountains

Carissa Freeh

Senior Thesis (2015): Diet driven decline of a generalist forest carnivore?

Jenna Carlson

Senior Honors Thesis (2014): Potential role of prey in the recovery of American martens to Wisconsin
Holstrom Environmental Scholarship

Sonia Petty

Senior Thesis (2014): The effects of climate change and land cover type on the subnivium, a seasonal refuge beneath the snow.
Reid Bryson Scholarship

Katrina Brickner

Senior Honors Thesis (2013): Exploring black-footed ferret diet specialization in Shirley Basin, Wyoming.