People

Dr. David Miller
Professor of Wildlife Population Ecology

I work with a variety of questions and taxa - all with a general focus on better understanding the population and community dynamics of wildlife species. My research focuses on matching quantitative tools and ecological understanding to better understand how species will respond to environmental change.

Dr. Lane Scher

Post Doc

Dr. Riley Mummah

Post Doc - U.S.G.S. Mendenhall Fellow

Carli Dinsmore

Research Associate

Carli completed her M.S. degree in the fall of 2019 and is currently working as a research associate in the lab. Her M.S. research focused on estimating the effects of climate on growth rates of garter snakes using mark-recapture data. Her current duties include leading field work for our NSF EEID disease study and the research coordinator for our NSF RaMP program.

Paula Blanco-Ortiz

PhD Student - Ecology

Paula Blanco is a University Graduate Fellow, Dean's Distinguished Graduate Fellow, and BIOMS NIH/NIGMS-NRSA T32 Trainee and is co-advised by Dr. Molly Bletz. She received her bachelor's degree from Cornell University, where she worked on creating non-invasive detection methods for the Ambystoma species complex, a group of special concern New York salamanders. At Penn State, she focuses on temperature-dependent host-pathogen dynamics in amphibians.

Joy Flowers

PhD Student - Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences

Joy (she/her) earned a dual B.S. in Wildlife Conservation and Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech. During her time there, she cultivated a passion for modeling wildlife diseases. Joy has previously looked at landcover change relationships with Ebola virus spillover in Central Africa through spatiotemporal modeling. In the Miller lab, Joy is working on integrated dynamic species distribution modeling for North American salamanders. She is also the founder and current President of the Canada and United States (CANUSA) chapter of the Wildlife Disease Association. Her research interests involve remote sensing, wildlife disease ecology, spatial ecology, and Bayesian modeling

Di'Carlo Jackson

M.S. Student - Ecology

Di’Carlo (he/him) is a first-generation Master’s student who earned his B.S. in Biology from Park University (MO). He’s interested in investigating life history evolution in reptiles. As a member of the SMAL project, - a collaborative effort using Shared Molecular mechanisms Across Life history traits, he’s currently studying the utilization of field ultrasounds to observe reproductive variables in insular dwarf reptiles on the Channel Islands of California. Here is a link to his personal website

Stephanie Gonzalez

PhD Student - Ecology

Stephanie J. Gonzalez (she/her) is a first-generation PhD graduate student who earned her master’s degree at the California State University of Long Beach. Her interests are rooted in life history theory and seek to understand how different populations/species are affected by their environments. Driven by curiosity, she currently studies the body size-reproduction relationship in squamate reptiles at the inter- and intra-specific level. She is a proud member of the SMAL project (smalproject.org), a collaborative project that attempts to understand the mechanisms regulating body size and reproduction in the California Channel Islands dwarf reptile species.

Liz McAlpine

PhD Student - Ecology

Liz has previously worked with fish, octopuses, amphibians, and reptiles in a variety of ecosystems across the globe. She is interested in how different species adapt to anthropogenic (human-caused) change and how this impacts management and conservation decisions. Liz is currently studying how thermal gradients across landscapes affect habitat selection in Pennsylvania turtles, and how different management strategies can help preserve habitat. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her two poisonous pet frogs, Jabba and Pong and her snake Cthulhu.

Melissa Marquez

PhD Student - Ecology

Melissa earned her master's degree in Geography and Environmental Sustainability at the University of Oklahoma, with a focus in urban tick ecology. She is co-advised by Molly Bletz and is working on our NSF funded project looking at temperature driven effects on host-pathogen dynamics in amphibians. Her research is focused on examining how seasonal temperature fluctuations affect components of immunity and pathogen growth. When she is not in the lab or field, she enjoy traveling, exploring new cuisines, and participating in community events.

Will Robertson

MS Student - Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences

Growing up, Will spent every moment of his free time in the local woodlots, catching frogs, snakes, turtles, and salamanders. Will graduated from Middlebury College in May of 2021 with a degree in conservation biology and is now pursuing a Master’s in Wildlife and Fisheries Science at Penn State. His current research is focused on better understanding the thermal ecology and habitat use of eastern box turtles and wood turtles. In his free time, Will pursues, photographs, and films wildlife, and enjoys making educational videos. Will is passionate about the role of media in conservation and hopes to inspire an audience through his videography.