About me

I am a marine ecologist interested in how coastal marine habitats, such as kelp forests and coral reefs, interact with the environment and how the environment can influence interactions between species. Broadly, my work combines molecular techniques and field ecology to better understand how environment-organism interactions can influence processes important to ecology, evolution and conservation. In recent years, my research has focused predominantly on how environmental change, and especially marine heatwaves, are impacting nearshore ecosystems.

I am currently a Forrest Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia Oceans Institute in Boorloo (Perth, Australia). In November of this year (2025), I will be starting as a Senior Lecturer at Curtin University where I will be launching the Curtin Coastal Ecology Group in close collaboration with the TrEnD lab.

I completed my PhD in 2019 from the Department of Botany and Beaty Biodiversity Research Centre at The University of British Columbia in Vancouver. At UBC, I was a Killam Scholar and I studied the evolutionary  ecology of rocky shore seaweeds. Following this, I was an NSERC and Mitacs Fellow at the University of Victoria, working in partnership with the Kelp Rescue Initiative and the Pacific Salmon Foundation. I maintain an advisory role with the Kelp Rescue Initiative.

I extend my deep gratitude to the numerous First Nations in whose traditional, unceded or treaty lands and waters I work and play. I am grateful for my existing partnerships with First Nations groups and hope that these will set the stage for additional collaborations with other Nations with interest in furthering our collective understanding of the coastal marine ecosystems that they have long stewarded and on which we all rely.