I am very passionate about teaching and scientific outreach. I am often at my happiest when I am sharing and discussing my research and academic interests with people who are new to or unfamiliar with the topics. I see every conversation, even the most passive, as an opportunity to educate and bring science to the forefront of more people's minds.
Select Outreach and Science Communication
(See my Media & Press tab for more!)
Dino Fest | NHMLA
2018
December 2023-present
Started making reels on my Instagram, @Formorphology, which have garned several thousand plays.
Long Beach Comic Expo
January 11, 2020
I had the opportunity to be a featured panelist on on all women paleontologist team at Long Beach Comic Expo for a session titled "Pop Paleo" which discussed with and answered questions from audience members on how paleontology influences popular culture (fantasy, sci-fi, movies, video games, etc). This panel was hosted by Space Expo and Cosplay for Science.
Project Scientist
July 26, 2019
As one of Project Scientist's "Superstars" for the week, I had the wonderful opportunity to talk to a diverse group of girls, aged 4-12, about marine tetrapods, paleontology, science, and my life journey. Project Scientist is a wonderful program that aims to get young girls interested in STEM fields.
Virginia Tech Center for Communicating Science Opening Ceremony
2017
To celebrate the opening of Virginia Tech's brand new Center for Communicating Science, which I was on the Advisory Board for, a friendly competition called the "Nutshell Games" was held where your graduate research is described in 90 seconds, or in a nutshell. I explained my broader interest and research on the themes of convergent evolution in vertebrates.
Keynote Speaker: Nevada Steam Conference, Nevada Museum of Art
April 2025
Had the wonderful privilege of giving not one, but two separate public talks on the intersection of science and art. The first was how paleontology and geology influence sci-fi and fantasy. The second was for K-12 educators on the importance and integration of art and science.
Nerd Nite LA
November 14, 2019
I was a presenter for "Nerd Nite," an event featured in cities across the world where "nerds" have the opportunity to share their nerdy knowledge topics in a laid back, mature, middle-brow setting. I gave a talk on my PhD research, and it was titled "Land was just a phase! I'm not that tetrapod anymore.” It was a hit, both in educational delivery and audience laughs.
NHMLA's Dino Fest
September, 2018
Volunteered to help represent USC Paleosciences at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles for their 2018 Dino Fest, a two-day festival that is all things dinosaurs and paleontology. I talked with table visitors about titanosaurs, tyrannosaurs, vertebrae, and deep time.
Virginia Tech Museum of Geosciences Outreach
September, 2017
Two visiting classes of JROTC students from the Franklin Military Academy of Richmond, VA, were given grad student taught lessons on varied topics in earth sciences and paleontology utilizing the museum resources as part of an outreach relationship between the museum and school. My lessons were on geologic time and evolution and were a big hit!
Teaching
Topics in Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources (11:216:104)
Course Instructor, Fall 2026, Rutgers University
This is a required course for all EENR majors and minors and is intended to introduce students to the curriculum’s faculty and their areas of research. Involves assigned readings and class visits from EENR faculty, allowing students to ask questions and explore potential experiential learning and undergraduate research opportunities, course offerings, and career paths. Information about the major, common minors, and other opportunities for undergraduates at Rutgers are also discussed.
Vertebrate Zoology (11:216:325)
Postdoctoral Course Instructor, Spring 2025, Rutgers University
History of Life: A View from the Museum, LAB (GEOL 126)
Teaching Assistant, Spring 2019 and Spring 2023, University of Southern California
Lab delves into hands on applications of material covered in the lecture course described as "topically-driven exploration of evolution, environmental change, and the history of life on Earth via the fossil record with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles as a laboratory. How the changing Earth and life co-evolved through time." For the 2023 semester, the course professor, Dr. Frank Corsetti, additionally let me present my research to the entire class for one lecture.
Developed and taught a modern Vertebrate Zoology course that deeply integrated evolutionary concepts to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of extant vertebrate life, including fish, lissamphibians, squamates, crocodylians, birds, and mammals. Lab component for the course enables hands-on learning with vertebrate specimens including ethanol preserved, taxidermy, and skeletal anatomy.
Planet Earth (GEOL 105)
Teaching Assistant, Fall 2018, University of Southern California
Broad lab topics covered which served as an extension to topics covered in lecture which on the geologic structure and evolution of planet earth including principles of plate tectonics, rocks and minerals, processes of mountain building, continent and ocean formation, earthquakes, volcanism, fossils and geologic time, and development of landforms by running water and glaciers.
Conservation Ecology (11:216:317)
Grading Assistant, Spring 2018, Rutgers University
Physical Geology, LAB (GEOS 1104)
Teaching Assistant, Spring 2017, Fall 2016, Virginia Tech
Graded weekly written assignments and research papers, with effective feedback to facilitate writing improvement. Assignments pertained to various topics on the effects of technology and population growth on species, ecosystems, and human communities, environmental impact of agricultural and industrial systems, global environmental change, and biological and social underpinnings of conservation.
First half of this lab course focused on identification of minerals and rocks; with the second half delving into broader physical geologic themes including interpreting and building geologic maps, topographic maps and air photographs and their use in understanding landscape and geologic influences on human activities.
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