I serve as a botanist for the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and the Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program.

As the Manager of the Plants of Concern program (POC), I focused on conservation of rare flora across the Chicago region. POC is a collaborative citizen science project to collect region-wide data on rare plant populations. My experience with rare plant monitoring allowed me to become familiar with remnant wetlands, woodlands, savannahs, and grasslands, and over the past 15 years POC has provided that same, incredibly valuable opportunity for hundreds of volunteers. This value is extended by the fact that POC shares its data with the land managers and state agencies charged with protecting these species.Since its inception in 2000, POC has worked with over 800 volunteers and partnered with seven northeast Illinois Forest Preserve Districts, The Nature Conservancy, the Chicago Park District, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Forest Service, as well as the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Funding has been generously provided by many of these collaborators, as well as by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the Garden Club of America, the Root-Pike Watershed Initiative Network (Wisconsin), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the state C2000 program, and Corporation for Open Lands (CorLands).

I assist in administering a citizen-science based program that monitors rare plants around the Chicago region. I train volunteers and coordinate with land managers, ecologists, and stewards. I help manage our database and am working to analyze 11 years of spatially referenced data. I am often in the field monitoring threatened and endangered plant species, and do some mapping of that information.

Performed a variety of biogeochemical and ecosystem process related laboratory tests.Identified plants and monitored field research plots.Taught non-major undergraduate students biological and botanical concepts.

Collected data and coordinated with citizen scientists at sites across the Chicago region.Identified plants in the field and in the lab.Coordinated with regional ecologists to compile and correct data .Analyzed data and prepared presentations and reports.

Participated in management of native habitats, including prescribed burning and herbicide application.Identified, collected, dried, and cleaned seeds; kept seeds organized.Installed native plantings and controlled weedy / invasive species.

Wrote a comprehensive management plan for an ecologically important sanctuaryPursued landowner permission for rare plant surveys across New EnglandProvided assistance with invasive species control, rare plant management, and botanical inventory projects.