简介

I am originally from Rhode Island where the family quahogging outings and the importance of seafood in our traditional Italian cuisine initially shaped my interest and appreciation for the marine environment. I majored in zoology as an undergraduate and had exciting internships involving different animals that lived on land, including tagging bears in in the backcountry of a national park and studying social group behavior of monkeys; still my strong roots and passion for the sea led me to complete a Ph.D. in marine biology. I have been a visiting researcher in different parts of the world including Hawaii, the Caribbean and Venice, Italy and at local academic institutions working on both marine and freshwater fishes. My teaching philosophy is to engage others in discovery of a core background in evolution that emphasizes its importance in understanding the biology of humans and other organisms and its role in maintaining human and environmental health in our world today. I hope to empower students to think more critically about their biological lives as well as help create a more informed public dialogue about policies that affect the health of our environmental resources. As part of my research program in the biology department, I have a laboratory that includes a freshwater fish husbandry program. Mentoring student research is central to my fish studies; and my laboratory is where students with many different career interests, work together to study the "how?" and "why?" of the evolution of fish adaptations.