Courses taught at Yale

My primary objective in teaching is to provide the next generation of environmental decision makers with a solid understanding of the ecological principles needed to make informed policy, management, and conservation decisions.

Ecology & Conservation of Tropical Forests

Tropical forests contain extraordinarily high biological diversity and provide critical ecosystem services, yet are being rapidly destroyed and degraded. This course focuses on the structure, function, and diversity of intact and degraded tropical forests, with an emphasis on the ecological processes that shape these unique and diverse ecosystems. We also discuss the major threats to tropical forests, as well as examples of tropical forest recovery following disturbance. The course involves a mix of lectures and student-led discussions.

Tropical Field Ecology

This course is designed to give students first-hand knowledge of tropical biology and the issues surrounding conservation of tropical biodiversity through a field trip to Panama, a country famous for its high biological and cultural diversity. The emphasis is on active learning and developing independent research projects carried out during the field trip. Topics covered include patterns of biodiversity, tropical forest dynamics, species interactions and co-evolution, climate change impacts, ecosystem services, and human land use. Students also gain experience with study design, data collection methods, ecological statistics, and scientific writing and presentation.

Pests, Parasites & Pathogens

Pests, parasites, and pathogens play an incredibly important role in the ecology of both natural and managed systems, but receive much less attention than more charismatic megafauna. In this seminar, we discuss the impact of these underappreciated organisms on the ecosystems around us. Weekly meetings focus on student-led discussions of recent scientific articles. Topics include parasites as indicators of ecosystem health; climate change and insect herbivore outbreaks in temperate forests; the role of pathogens in maintaining tropical forest diversity; disease spillover between natural and managed systems; how escape from enemies contributes to the success of invasive species;  emerging infectious diseases in wildlife; and parasitic mind control (aka zombie parasites!). Students gain a better understanding of species interactions in ecological communities and the importance of considering those interactions when making conservation and management decisions.

Additional teaching

I am a contributor to the online certificate program Tropical Forest Landscapes: Conservation, Restoration & Sustainable Use offered by ELTI and Yale School of the Environment. For this program, I provide taped lectures for the unit on Fundamentals of Ecological and Social Concepts and participate in virtual Q&A sessions with students in the program.