Lab alumni

Former Graduate Students

jon henn (PHD 2020) – POSTDOC, university of colorado-boulder & university of california-riverside

 I study how functional traits can help explain plant responses to factors like climate change, species invasions, and changing disturbance regimes. My research focuses on these issues to improve the restoration and management of ecosystems under rapidly changing conditions. In addition to doing research, I actively work on developing effective mentoring, teaching, and outreach skills because I believe that scientists need to be effective mentors, teachers, and communicators to help cultivate the next generation of scientists and engaged citizens.

JEANNINE RICHARDS (PHD 2020) – Assistant Professor, FLOrida Gulf Coast University

I am interested in the controls over tropical epiphyte diversity and how social and economic impacts alter their composition and abundance. I recently completed my Ph.D. in spring 2020 studying epiphyte diversity in Nicaragua. I am now a postdoc at the University of Wisconsin-Madison after receiving a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Quinn Sorenson (pHD 2019) – POSTDOC, University of California-Davis

I focus on plant community ecology in the context of agricultural land-use history and habitat fragmentation in the U.S. Southeast longleaf pine ecosystem. I am interested in understanding how the legacies of agriculture on soil and belowground processes affect plant communities and restoration success. Within the Corridor Project, a well-replicated landscape experiment testing the effects of corridors, I am interested in how landscape connectivity affect the development of plant communities over time. I have a strong background in land management and restoration ecology in coastal sage scrub and grasslands of southern California. I hope to use my research to test ecological theory as well as inform conservation planning and restoration efforts.

Amy Alstad (phd 2017) – Director of Land Management & Environmental Education, holy wisdom monastery

I am a former graduate student in the Damschen lab. My Ph.D. research where I investigated long-term changes in the plant communities in Wisconsin prairie remnants. I resampled prairie sites first studied by John Curtis in the 1950s, and compared the past and present plant communities to ask questions about the effects of landscape context, climate change, and plant functional traits. My aim with this research included both providing answers to open questions in ecological theory, as well as generating results with tangible conservation and restoration applications.

Jesse Miller (phd 2016) – Lead Botanist, Washington Natural Heritage Program

I am currently the Lead Botanist for the Washington Natural Heritage Program, where I provide scientific guidance for rare plant conservation efforts statewide. Previously, I worked as a lecturer at Stanford for four years, teaching inquiry-based ecology courses in collaboration with Tad Fukami. I spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California-Davis, where I studied effects of fire severity and altered fire regimes on plant and lichen communities in Hugh Safford’s lab. I completed my Ph.D. in Ellen Damschen’s lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I studied the influence of habitat connectivity, fire history, and soil resource availability on plant community composition and vegetation structure in glades (shallow soil grasslands) in the Ozarks of Arkansas and Missouri. Before graduate school I worked for several years as a field botanist, surveying for rare plants on federal land and conducting ecological studies for academic research labs. My research today is grounded in the natural history knowledge and skills I began developing earlier in my career.

MELISSA SIMON (MS 2010)

Former Postdocs

LAURA LADWIG – Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin-OshKosh

Ecological communities are in constant flux. Organisms thrive and decline. Species come and go. Whole systems can be altered by a change in one aspect of the community, and as communities change, so too do the services they provide. Understanding what causes ecological communities to change and evaluating the consequences of said change are the basis of my research. The majority of my research revolves around plants. How plants respond to the environment, react to changing conditions, and influence the surrounding community. Plants are critical components of many food webs and have a large influence on the environment, so understanding how plants change informs us about the whole system.

LARS BRUDVIG – PROFESSOR, MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

CATHY COLLINS – ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, BARD COLLEGE

JEN CRUZ – ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY

BRETT MATTINGLY – ASSOCIATe PROFESSOR, EASTERN CONNECTICUT STATE UNIVERSITY

JOE VELDMAN – ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

Portraits courtesy of Liz Kozik.