The Crew

Introducing my three techs ...

 

Kayla Hammer 

My name is Kayla Hammer. I am an aspiring scientist currently working on my undergraduate degree at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. I am a Pacific Northwest native, and although it is often rainy, I enjoy spending the majority of my time in the outdoors.

Hiking through the rainforest. Olympic Peninsula, WA

 

 

 

In 2011, my love of nature prompted me to make a career change. I had been working in the healthcare field for the last 5+ years as a phlebotomist (the one who draws your blood) in a medical laboratory. Although it had been a great career for me, the sterility and the fluorescent lighting really started to take a toll on me. Four out of my five years in the healthcare field were spent in a lab that had no windows or any natural light at all; I truly began to feel like a vampire (which coincidently is the nickname that we phlebs are often given by our patients). After much deliberation, I decided that what I really wanted was a career that involved my passion for the outdoors. This is what led me to go back to school to study environmental sciences. As I sit here in a research station on an exquisite wildlife/natural preserve in California, volunteering my time for a study that I think is both fascinating and important, I couldn’t be happier with my decision to go back to school. Although schooling does create some financial hurtles, I feel like it is totally worth it. Through my school I was able to collaborate on a research project looking at the biodiversity of sessile marine organisms throughout Puget Sound. For approximately 10 weeks we went out into the field to various marinas, rain or shine (mostly rain, thanks to the Pacific Northwest weather systems), getting our hands dirty (more accurately muddy, wet, cold and slimy).

Observing rocky shoreline tidal zone gradients. "Hole in the Wall"  Olympic Peninsula, WA

 

I have also had the opportunity to go on many field excursions at different nature preserves to learn bird identification, field survey methods, and the very important art of note taking.
I am currently in my last quarter at school and am fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work on this project looking at co-evolution of rattlesnake venom and prey defenses. After graduating, I plan to look for work as a scientific technician, and continue to assist with environmental research. 

Snowy Owl perched on some drift wood

For me, there is something about doing field research that just doesn’t feel like doing work. This by no stretch of the imagination means that it is easy- there are times when you are aching, cold, wet, sweaty, emotionally drained, and exhausted- but for me all of that just feels right.

Outside of career aspirations and schooling I am lucky enough to have a like-minded partner, my boyfriend, Cobe. We love to hike, camp, fish, road-trip, go birding and just about anything else that gets us outside. Also along for the ride are our two dogs Buffy and Willow, named for my nerdy obsession with the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Some of our favorite family activities include driving out to the coast and letting the dogs run around in the surf, or camping in the Olympic National Forest.

Me and my partner Cobe during our Snowy Owl adventure.

I have a 3 ½ year old nephew named Jude who is the other love of my life. Though he is very young, he is an aspiring scientist like his aunt. I am lucky enough to live near my family so I can take Jude out for nature walks. I have started teaching him how to bird; he really likes to point out birds and make up fake names for them. He has also gotten quite good at imitating Black Capped Chickadees which makes me super proud.

Margaret Earthman Stroebel

I have always thought of myself as a born and bred researcher: one with a heightened sense of curiosity who has thousands of questions and the determination to find the answers. I have been fortunate enough to find a career that combines my passion for nature with my innate desire to learn, discover, and share. Though the life of a field ecologist is not always a glamorous one, it sure is exciting.

My childhood excursions into the woods with my family led me to pursue an education in the sciences. Though at first I thought of myself as a biologist, I found myself frequently distracted from laboratory work and longing to be outside. After several semesters of undergraduate courses, I declared my major in a similar, newer, and more exciting field: Ecology.

Performing surveys for Hellbenders with the NC Wildlife Resources Commission in Brevard, NC

I graduated from the University of North Carolina at Asheville in 2010 with a B.S. in Ecology and Environmental Biology. My undergraduate work gave me a strong foundation in experimental design and scientific work and lit a passion within me to work in the field. Though the job market was tough after graduation, I stumbled into the only job I could find working with animals. I have worked as a Veterinary Assistant and Surgical Team Leader ever since. I occupy my free time by volunteering with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and Western North Carolina Nature Center and dabbling in wildlife rehabilitation. I spent January 2013 on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea, working as a volunteer scientist with the Bioko Biodiversity Protection Program to conduct census studies on endangered primates. Upon my return, I conducted a brief study on the post-surgical glycemic levels of canine and feline patients at the Humane Alliance Spay & Neuter Clinic. I am thrilled to be a part of Matt’s current project as it marries my primary scientific interests in a way that I am able to research wildlife in an ecological and veterinary capacity.

Recent wildlife rehabilitation case, juvenile grey squirrel, Biggie.

    When I am not working, volunteering, or taking part in a research expedition, I lovingly devote my time to my husband, Paul, an extremely talented classical violinist. We currently live in Asheville, North Carolina with our two cuddly mutts and a rotating menagerie of foster animals and wildlife rehabilitation cases. We take great pride in hard work so that we can indulge in good food, good wine, and good company.

With husband, Paul, in an Akha hill-tribe village of northern Thailand.

Josh Zajdel

My name is Josh Zajdel, I grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and I have always had an interest in wildlife. As a kid, I would spend my time catching bugs and then using them to scare my sister. In high school, I became slightly more serious about my interest in animals and began volunteering at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. The zoo gave me the opportunity to work closely with a wide variety of animals, learn more about the scientific side of wildlife, and what different animal based careers were like.

I found that I really liked working with and learning about wildlife, especially when it came to reptiles and amphibians, which led me to eventually go on to major in zoology at North Carolina State University. While in college I worked on several other wildlife focused jobs. In 2011 I interned on Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, as an intern, I spent most of my time looking for and watching shorebirds. Occasionally, we would also have to catch them in order to band them.

The bands were used to identify individual birds.

 
While on Chincoteague I learned about the management side of wildlife, the techniques used to increase the population of a species, as well as what is needed to maintain a healthy ecosystem. After Chincoteague, I went on to work on Fort Bragg in North Carolina with the Haddad Lab; the Haddad Lab’s work was focused on the St. Francis Satyr. The St. Francis Satyr is a very small brown butterfly that is critically endangered. It is only found on Fort Bragg and only in swamps that have been recently burned. I spent most of my time on Fort Bragg either looking for St. Francis Satyr or recording how the St. Francis Satyr moved throughout its habitat. My time with the Haddad lab gave me a taste of the research side of zoology and I found that I like the research side slightly more than the management side. While at State I was also a member of the NCSU herpetology club, as a club we would travel around the southeast looking for reptiles and amphibians, and sometimes we were successful.

I caught a slender glass lizard in Jesup, Georgia.

I met a lot of my friends through the club and created many fond memories but most importantly, I learned that reptiles and amphibians were some of my favorite animals. Now that I knew I enjoyed research and reptiles, I began to look for jobs and found the research assistant position on the study of coevolution of rattlesnake venom and ground squirrel resistance. Now that I am out here, I am looking forward to learning more about the ecology of rattlesnakes and their impact on other animals. I am very excited to be volunteering with this project and I know that I am going to learn a lot from it.

Besides working with wildlife, I am also an avid kayaker and backpacker, I really enjoy kayaking back home on the Chesapeake Bay and among the barrier islands along the East Coast. My favorite places to backpack are in the Appalachian Mountains either in West Virginia or along the North Carolina Tennessee border. I am also a novice scuba diver with only 16 completed dives. I hope you enjoyed learning about me and I hope that you will support our research.