Thesis Topic

Assessing amphibian occupancy using eDNA in relation to water quality, hydrology and land use at restored wetlands in the California Central Valley

About Me

I was born in Hollywood and raised in a barrio called Frogtown located within Northeast Los Angeles, CA. As a child, I always knew I wanted to be a scientist of some sort and I had a deep connection to nature and animals from an early age. Although I grew up in an urban setting, Frogtown was located along the L.A. river and got its name because of all the frogs and toads that also inhabited the barrio. There are stories that there were so many frogs in Frogtown that it was hard to drive down the street and not hit a frog. But, when the L.A. river got hit with Chytrid, most the frogs disappeared from Frogtown and haven’t fully recovered since only leaving questions as to what happened to the frogs. By the time I was a teenager and learned about extinction, I felt the call to action and was compelled when I learned that people can have careers as conservationists, ecologists and biologists. This led me to be the first young adult in my family to move far away from home, 6 months after I had just turned 17 to pursue a B.S. in Wildlife ecology and management at Cal Poly Humboldt. Along my journey as an undergraduate researcher, I found that my research interests included using non/less- invasive methods (like environmental DNA), traditional ecological knowledge, indigenous science, herpetiles, wetland ecology, and spatial ecology. After graduating I worked as a wetland ecology research assistant, a biological consultant on a solar panel project and a substitute teacher for K-12. The relationship and trust I built working under Dr. Sharon Kahara led to my pursuit of a M.S. at Cal Poly Humboldt researching amphibians in the Central Valley. In a way it felt as though my life came full circle, bringing me back to the early curiosity of amphibians from my childhood. Aside from the business of my thesis research, class, and work, I enjoy hiking, skateboarding, painting, drawing, writing poetry, reviving my native languages (Nahuatl, Nawat Pipil), participating in cultural revitalization, going to ceremony, reading, taking care of my pet frogs, looking for herpetiles, birding, gardening, and fishing.

Undergraduate Institution

B.S. Wildlife Ecology and Management, Cal Poly Humboldt