I am proud to be invited to join the Million STEM project, highlighting women in STEM to serve as role models and inspiration for the next generation. See my profile here!

I was invited to write a News and Views article on integrating genomics into conservation – it was a really fun and rewarding experience! Read it here!

I presented a workshop at UWM’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute on ways that we use genetics for conservation.  What a fun topic to talk about, especially with such an engaged audience.  I feel optimistic and reinvigorated!

Congrats to Genelle for acing her MS Thesis presentation and defense!  So excited for her next adventure!

The Latch Lab welcomes Rachel Cook! Rachel will be joining our lab to study MHC evolution in mule deer. She comes to us from a neurobiology lab with a wealth of lab experience.  We are excited to show her how to apply those skills to ecological issues!

Two of our recent publications were ranked as the 3rd (Flanagan et al. 2018) and 6th (Jost et al. 2018) most downloaded articles in the journal Evolutionary Applications in 2018.  Wonderful to hear these publications are useful and interesting to the broader community!

I was honored to speak as an expert on hybridization to the National Academies of Sciences Committee on Wolf Taxonomy. Talk can be viewed at: http://nas-sites.org/dels/studies/wolf-taxonomystudy/webinar-hybridization/.  This is such an important topic, and I thought it was really great that each presentation focused on a different aspect of this complex issue.

We welcome Samantha Hauser, who recently received her PhD in Paul Leberg’s conservation genetics lab at the University of Louisiana – Lafayette. Sam used field and laboratory approaches in a landscape genetics framework to better understand connectivity in the black-capped vireo, to help guide conservation efforts for the species. We are super excited to have her expertise to tackle questions about the Hawaiian monk seal!

I was honored to be a co-recipient of the Robert C. Stebbins Research Award, awarded by the Desert Tortoise Council for significant contribution to the preservation or knowledge of desert tortoises. The award recognized our contributions through our paper highlighting a complete lack of paternal introgression following a large desert tortoise translocation (Mulder et al. 2017).

The Latch Lab put on a great show for Science Bag, a weekly interactive science presentation for public audiences.  Friday nights and Sunday afternoons, Science Bag is in its 45th year!