I am a fourth year PhD student in the Quantitative Ecology and Resource Management program at the University of Washington. My research focuses on applying spatiotemporal statistical models to questions in fisheries management and ecology. In particular, I am developing models for indices of abundance that include fishery-dependent observations. I am also interested in improving the computational efficiency and reliability of Bayesian model fits through the application of advanced Markov chain Monte Carlo tools like the No-U-Turn Sampler. Prior to graduate school I worked in aviation maintenance and the outdoor industry.
PhD in Quantitative Ecology & Resource Management, In progress
University of Washington
MS in Statistics, 2016
University of Alaska Fairbanks
BS in Biology & Physics, 2008
Clarkson University
Spatially varying catchability for fishery-dependent CPUE standardization.
Accounting for preferential sampling in spatial models of catch and effort data
Incorporating nonstationary spatial processes by allowing for spatially varying covariance parameters.
Eliminating HMC divergences when fitting Bayesian state-space models for fish populations.
This project is a collaboration between Alex Zerbini, Grant Adams, and myself. We are working to update Zerbini et al. (2006). Additional data are being incorporated to make a more accurate assessment of the population. The software used to fit the model has been almost completely rewritten in order to increase both efficiency and flexibility.
Course Assistant, 2016–present