Doing service through club leadership and volunteering has always important to me, both to improve public access in science and to serve the communities I'm a part of. I'm particularly excited to be involved in projects that support young women and other minority groups science, improve citizen engagement with mycology and ecology, and support community development for women. Here are some organizations/projects that I'm currently involved in:
Current Activities
2024-present: Mentor, UC Davis Ecology Grad Group QE support program
This program provides mentorship and support for ecology graduate students preparing for their qualifying exam, a major component of the PhD process. The goal is to make the exam more approachable, provide study tools and opportunities to practice the exam presentation. As a mentor, I provide one-on-one support to a PhD student, addressing their concerns about the exam and sharing my experiences with preparing for the exam. I also participate in weekly program meetings.
2023-present: MYCOBLITZ PROGRAM Planning committee, Redwood Forest Foundation Inc.
The Redwood Forest Foundation Inc. (RFFI) is a non-profit based in Fort Bragg, California that manages 50,000 acres of redwood forest in Mendocino and Humboldt counties. Following the mass deforestation of the region in the 20th century, RFFI's mission is to sustainably manage redwood forests and open their land to community engagement through tribal activities, recreation and restoration projects. One such restoration/ecological monitoring project started in 2023 is their Mycoblitz program, a series of events in tandem with the 2023 Continental Mycoblitz designed to catalog the fungal diversity of the forest. I participated in the inaugural Mycoblitz in October 2023 and joined the planning committee to establish a long-term series of events. Such events will consist of forays on RFFI land, along with workshops on identifying fungi and ethnomycology. Long term goals of this work are to put on regular mushroom festivals for the local community and involve citizen scientists in documenting the fungal diversity on RFFI land over time. I am also responsible for recruiting mycology students and experts from the UC Davis community to this program through the UC Davis Mycology Club and the Department of Plant Pathology.
2023-PRESENT: MENTOR, UC Davis GUARDIAN SCHOLARS PROGRAM
This program provides support to undergraduates who grew up in the foster care system with achieving their academic, professional and personal goals. As a mentor in this program, I am working with a first-year student on adjusting to learning in the university system, exploring career options in the plant sciences, and finding community in college. We meet on a weekly basis to check-in on their college experience, bond through shared interests, and identify support needs to share with GSP staff. We also participate in program events once per quarter.
2022-present: Mentor with the Ecology and Evolution Graduate Preview Program
This program is run by current graduate students in the Ecology and Population Biology graduate groups at UC Davis in order to support undergraduates with applying to graduate school. The fully remote program provides seminars and workshops about how to choose, apply to and start in a graduate program in ecology, along with one-on-one mentorship. As a mentor in this program, I've provided support for three undergraduate students by meeting individually to discuss each student's interests, address their questions and concerns about graduate school (applying as a first generation student, how to identify mentors, finding funding etc.), and share my experience with adjusting to graduate school. One of my mentees from this program is now a PhD student at Stanford University.
Previous Activities
2023: Research mentor, Woodland Community College MESA undergraduate Research Scholar Program (WCC-MURSP)
This program, developed in 2023 by Dr. Gabriel Subuyuj and Aly Rasmussen from UC Davis with Lorena Navarro, provides paid summer research experience to students at Woodland Community College. Students in the program learn to conduct and present research, along with preparing to transfer to UC Davis. As a mentor, I designed research projects for two student scholars, taught them the microbiological techniques to carry out their projects, helped them manage their experiment schedules, and provided feedback on their poster designs. I also got their assistance on a field experiment. Finally, some of my labmates and I organized a summer journal club to introduce my students and other summer interns to reading and interpreting scientific literature in microbial ecology.
2023: Mentor with the GGE 1st year mentoring program
2022-2023: Outreach Volunteer with UC Davis Sacnas
2020-2021 Communication Chair for the MSA Student and Post-doc Section
The Student Section of the Mycological Society of America is dedicated to connecting mycological students with each other and the rest of the society through online interactions, regular newsletters and events at the annual society meeting. As the communication chair for the 2020-2021 year, I promoted various campaigns on social media (Mushroom of the Month, Fungal Photography Spotlights, Student Spotlights), contributed to the section's monthly newsletter and assisted in planning remote research talks by mycology students.
2020-2021 Public Engagement Committee Member for the Ecology Graduate Student Association (EGSA)
The EGSA Public Engagement Committee manages science outreach opportunities for ecology graduate students, particularly at UC Davis' annual Picnic Day. As a member of this committee, I assisted in the planning for this year's virtual Picnic Day exhibit.
2020-2021 Femme/Trans/Women's team Coordinator for the UC Davis Cycling Club
The UC Davis Cycling Club connects undergraduate and graduate students to the cycling community through group rides, club seminars and collegiate racing with USA Cycling. As the FTW team coordinator in 2020-2021, I provided support for my female/trans/non-binary teammates by organizing remote strength training sessions, in-person group rides (when authorized by the university), remote social visits, bike maintenance clinics and Q&A sessions with pro/elite women cyclists.
2020: Science mentoring With the National Summer Undergraduate Research Program (NSURP)
NSURP connects BIPOC undergraduate students with microbiology labs for remote research projects. Through participating in the program, students are given the opportunity to learn skills in literature review, data collection and analysis, and presentation of scientific information. I joined Lab Leveau in mentoring an undergraduate in a project on phyllosphere (leaves and other above-ground tissues) microbiology in the summer of 2020.