Officers
CHAIR
Alyson East is a Landscape Ecologist and her work revolves around remote sensing applications of landscape ecology, biodiversity, and disturbance. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Maine in Ecology and Environmental Science and a Master’s Degree from Montana State University. After recently finishing a Post-Masters ORISE Research Fellow working collaboratively with the US Forest Services’ Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center, and Oak Ridge National Lab, she is currently starting a PhD program at the University of Maine. Outside of work, she is an avid recreationalist and can often be found climbing, hiking, biking, paddle boarding, or foraging with her dog and husband.
VICE CHAIR
Cait Rottler (she/hers) is a chronic generalist, having done range, reclamation, and plant community ecology, and a little bit of soil science. She currently works for WEST, Inc., a statistical and environmental consulting firm, working primarily on restoration ecology. When she’s not sciencing, she enjoys spending time with her 4 cats, dog, snake, and horse. Initially she joined the ECE Section as a member, and then joined the board as a member-at-large before becoming the blog editor and webmaster. Her favorite thing about ECE is getting to meet all of the incredible members of the section and working with the other officers to engage with folks.
SECRETARY-TREASURER
John McMullen (they/he) is a chemical and evolutionary ecologist working on host-associated microbiomes and symbiosis. John is currently a Postdoc working on the canonical rhizobia-legume mutualism and is studying novel approaches to mark-recapture of microorganisms as well as understudied aspects of this system, such as how bacterial viruses disrupt nutirent flow. They received their BS and MS in Microbiology from the University of Arizona, where they first worked on insect pathogenic nematodes and their bacterial endosymbionts and insect virulence traits. Then, John received their PhD at Cornell University working on the Drosophila gut microbiome and fly nutrition.
PAST CHAIR
Lilli Kaarakka is a forest ecologist interested in understanding forest ecosystem function in forests facing environmental change in California and across the West. Forest management plays an important role in controlling the stand biomass stock and therefore that of carbon. Thus, it is impossible to understand global terrestrial C sink without understanding forest demography.
WEBMASTER AND BLOG EDITOR
Currently vacant.
TWITTER AND SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR
Avery Scherer is a marine and aquatic ecologist whose research focuses on species interactions and their influence on ecosystem function. Her academic experiences focused on non-consumptive predator effects and invasive species ecology in south Texas oyster reefs, in lionfish in the Caribbean, and in Hawaiian stream communities. In 2019, she made the leap into non-academic work, accepting a position with the consulting company Cramer Fish Sciences where she studies the role of species interactions in the success of river restoration projects benefiting California salmonids. Avery is a former graduate of the section’s mentorship program and employs her passion for science communication in the name of early career ecologists.
MENTORSHIP PROGRAM COORDINATOR
Kristen Emmett
is an ORISE Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the USDA Forest Service’s Western Wildlands Environmental Threat Assessment Center and Northwest Climate Hub. As an Applied Climate Change Researcher she helps develop science-based climate change vulnerability assessments for western landscapes. She also conducts research on the effects of climate change on forest and wildfire dynamics. She brings a diverse career pathways perspective to the ECE board and mentoring program having worked for two federal agencies, two state agencies, two nonprofits, and two universities, and collaborated with many more. Kristen received a BS in Environmental Science and BA in Studio Art from University of Oregon, and PhD in Ecology and Environmental Science from Montana State University.
DIVERSE CAREER PATHWAYS OFFICER
Currently vacant.
MEMBERS-AT-LARGE
Nate Emery is an ECE section Past-Chair. He is trained as a plant ecologist and is currently the STEM Education Coordinator in the Center for Innovative Teaching, Research, and Learning at UC Santa Barbara. Before grad school, he took two gap years between undergrad and grad school as a field technician in Yellowstone National Park, secretary for Mylan pharmaceuticals, athletic tutor, line cook in a burrito restaurant, and field ecologist for The Nature Conservancy in Oregon. For grad school, he studied coastal fog and wildfires at UC Santa Barbara. He did two postdocs at Michigan State University before shifting to teaching professional development and education research.
Pacifica Sommers is a Past Chair of the ECE Section. She is currently a Metagenomics Data Scientist at Bayer US – Crop Sciences, where she uses knowledge and tools from microbial ecology to explore bacterial genes for those of interest to agriculture. Her research for her PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Arizona focused on effects of animal behavior in driving grass invasions of the Southwestern US, and her postdoctoral research on the processes of microbial community assembly in and around glacier ice in Arctic, Antarctic, and alpine ecosystems. Pacifica is also passionate about teaching and mentoring others in engaging with the scientific process, no matter what their current stage and trajectory in life, having taught at UA Science: Sky School (Arizona), Girls* On Rock (Colorado), and the Juneau Icefield Research Program (Alaska).
Kathleen Carroll is the Past Chair of the ECE and an Assitant Professor of Applied Quantitative Ecology at the University of Rhode Island. Kathleen has two bachelor degrees, one in wildlife ecology and one in marine biology cum laude from the University of Maine, an MS from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in Environmental Sciences, and a Ph.D. from Montana State University. They also worked as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 2020-2023 and the University of Victoria 2023-2024. Kathleen has backgrounds in wildlife conservation, marine biology, behavioral ecology, landscape ecology, statistics, education, and science communication. Kathleen’s understanding across a broad range of disciplines has provided them with a unique perspective on connectivity science and management strategies across a range of taxa. Their current work focuses on large mammal community change in human modified landscapes across the Canadain boreal. Their personal interests include spending time with their three dogs, taking care of their > 80 house plants, reading, and participating in most outdoor recreational activities (including running, climbing, swimming, backpacking, and paddling). They have been a certified PADI scuba instructor since 2011.
Molly Reichenborn is a PhD candidate studying plant community responses to shrub management at New Mexico State University. Previously, she received a master’s degree from Wichita State University and worked as a research project manager examining multi-trophic responses to cattle grazing on grasslands replanted through the USDA Conservation Reserve Program. She is broadly interested in the mechanisms underpinning the maintenance, invasion, and successful restoration of ecological communities, and developing data-supported management practices to guide effective land stewardship. She initially became involved with the early career ecologists as a member benefitting from sessions at the annual meeting organized by the section, and through resources compiled on the section website. She is excited to return the favor to members by building diverse resources and a supportive environment as they navigate the early stages of their careers.
Xiulin Gao is a postdoctoral scholar at Lawrence Berkeley National lab and UC Berkeley. She received her Ph.D. in fire ecology from Texas Tech studying fire-mediated tree-grass interaction in open ecosystems (e.g. woodlands and savannas) in Western U.S. using both lab and field experiments. Her postdoc work focuses on climate-vegetation-fire feedback in California ecosystems using dynamic vegetation demography models incombined with observational studies. She likes hiking, camping, drawing, and playing video games when not doing research.
SPECIAL COMMITTEES
Centennial Mentoring Program Planning Team (2014-2015)
Sarah Supp, Daniel Scholes, Daniel Stanton, Scott Collins (ESA Leadership), Winslow Hansen (ESA Student Section)
Cheers! A Networking Event Planning Team (2014-2015)
Sarah Supp, Daniel Scholes, Daniel Stanton, Scott Collins, Lauren Sullivan, Benjamin Blonder, Aaron Hogan, Jennie Miller
PAST OFFICERS
2021-2022
Secretary-Treasurer – Molly Reichenborn
Diverse Career Pathways Officer – Tim Fullman
2020-2021
Chair – Cari Ficken
2015-2016
Chair – Sarah Supp
2014-2015 (founding officers)
Chair – Daniel Scholes
Vice Chair – Sarah Supp
Secretary – Daniel Stanton