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Education
Teaching Experience I am dedicated to teaching in such a way that students are inspired and encouraged to think in new ways, while developing new analytical and intellectual tools. I have been a graduate student instructor for several courses, including graduate level courses in evolution and human behavior, and phylogenetic systematics, and college level courses in practical botany, vertebrate anatomy, and introductory biology. In addition to lab and classroom-based teaching, I have trained assistants in Madagascar in the areas of hypothesis generation and falsification, experimental design, and other field techniques. These are the tools that are critical to conducting research in the field, and form the basis for a field course. Research Interests My research has focused on the evolution of social behavior, and my interests encompass sexual selection theory, the use of systematics to understand ecological patterns (the comparative method), biogeography, and tropical ecology generally. I have worked primarily with amphibians, and my dissertation comprised the first long term study of any Madagascan herp. I studied a poison frog that shows remarkable behavioral convergence with the dart-poison frogs of the new world, including its forms of territoriality, extended courtship, and maternal care. I have been particularly focused on the ways that female choice and parental care mitigate other factors that affect behavior. I have also worked in Costa Rica and Panama on the social systems and foraging strategies of organisms as diverse as gladiator frogs and tent-making bats. Recent Publications
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