Graduate Students

Learn more about our graduate program here.

Francis Anaya

M.S. Student

francis.anaya@botanicgardens.org

Department of Integrative Biology​
University of Colorado – Denver

Franki is looking at the efficacy of seeding as a post-wildfire management practice. She is working with the Bureau of Land Management and using their Assessment, Inventory and Monitoring data to determine if seeding the Beaver Creek burn scar in Jackson County, Colorado has resulted in native vegetation regeneration or surface stabilization

Megan Clark

M.S. Student

megan.clark@botanicgardens.org

Department of Integrative Biology​
University of Colorado – Denver

Megan is interested in plant ecology and restoration. She is specifically interested in researching questions about restoration practices and the impacts of climate change on recovering plant communities.

Tiffany Gentry

M.S. Student

tiffany.gentry@botanicgardens.org

Department of Integrative Biology
University of Colorado – Denver

Tiffany is interested in the species-level phylogenetics with applications to conservation. Her thesis focuses on the origins of polyploidy in the genus Eutrema (Brassicaceae), and, the evolutionary history of the E. penlandii-E.edwardsii species complex.

Alissa Iverson

M.S. Student

alissa.iverson@botanicgardens.org

Department of Integrative Biology
University of Colorado – Denver

Alissa is interested in plant ecology, restoration and conservation. Her research focuses on the soil seed bank composition at the future site of the green stormwater infrastructure project at the High Line Canal in Denver.

Justin Loucks

M.S. Student

justin.loucks@botanicgardens.org

Department of Integrative Biology​
University of Colorado – Denver

Justin is interested in fungal diversity and ecology and enjoys traveling and documenting rare and unique fungi. His research employs DNA barcoding and phylogenetics to systematically examine the diversity and distributions of taxa in the fungal family Bankeraceae within western North America.

Audrey Spencer

Ph.D. Student

audrey.spencer@ucdenver.edu

Department of Integrative Biology
University of Colorado – Denver

Audrey is a plant taxonomist and biogeographer interested in the origins of the flora of the Southern Rockies. Her research combines phylogenetic, biogeographic, and morphologic lines of evidence to clarify the taxonomic relationships within Physocarpus, a genus of deciduous shrubs in family Rosaceae.

Previous Graduate Students and Thesis Titles

  • Carla DeMasters, M.S., University of Colorado – Denver, 2017, How do native annual and biennial species affect Bromus tectorum L. (Poaceae) abundance?
  • Liam Cullinane, M.S., University of Colorado – Denver, 2020, City Bees: An investigation of the drivers of bee abundance and bee richness along a rural-to-urban gradient
  • Margo Yousse, M.S., University of Colorado – Denver, 2020, Beaver dam analogs impact riparian vegetation communities
  • Amanda Miller, M.S., University of Colorado – Denver, 2021, How herbicide and seed treatments impact pollinator habitat in restoration of abandoned rangelands
  • Katherine Fu, Ph.D., University of Colorado – Denver, 2021, Implications of seed source on North American shortgrass prairie under climate change
  • Gary Olds, M.S., University of Colorado – Denver, 2021, Applying a Modified Metabarcoding Approach for the Sequencing of Macrofungal Specimens
  • Emily Orr, M.S., University of Colorado – Denver, 2022, Population genomic analysis of the rare, narrow endemic, Astragalus microcymbus

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