People – Kindsvater Lab

Graduate Students

Mary Adebote

Ph.D. Student

Mary earned her Bachelors degree at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria and her Master’s degree at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana where she studied Fisheries Science. Her Ph.D. at Virginia Tech is co-advised by Emmanuel Frimpong
Hailey Conrad

Ph.D. Student

Hailey completed her undergraduate degrees in Marine Sciences and Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources at Rutgers University in 2020. At VT, she is studying summer flounder demography and reproduction.
Kalin Ferguson

M.S. Student

Kalin obtained her B.S. at Virginia Tech in both Freshwater Fish Conservation and Wildlife Conservation in 2023. Her master's thesis, co-advised by Kevin Hamed, explores the impact of environmental conditions on the population growth of four-toed salamanders.
Charlie Holguin

Ph.D. student

Charlie completed his undergraduate degrees in Biology and Education and Youth Studies at Beloit College in 2020. He began research on amphibians as an REU at VT in 2018.
Emma Hultin

Ph.D. Student

Emma has a B.S. in Biology and a M.S. in Fish and Wildlife Conservation from VT. She is developing an integrated model of the socio-ecological dynamics of the arapaima fishery in the Brazilian Amazon. Her dissertation is jointly advised by Leandro Castello.

Undergraduates

Morgan Crum

B.S. in Wildlife Conservation '25

Morgan works with Charlie and Kevin Hamed on salamander ecology on Whitetop Mountain in Southwest VA.

Lab alumni

Dr. George Brooks

Postdoc

George finished his Ph.D. in Fish and Wildlife Conservation at VT in 2020. He collaborated on a variety of projects focused on viviparity in fishes, reptiles, and amphibians, demographic models of eastern hellbender salamanders, and population models integrating social and ecological factors. He is now at UW Madison.
Dr. Nathan Pacoureau

Postdoc

Nathan finished his Ph.D. in 2018 at the Chizé Centre for Biological Studies, a national lab in France, and completed a postdoc at SFU in Vancouver, BC followed by a postdoc at VT working on demographic models of elasmobranch populations. He is now a researcher at the Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans in Canada.
Aspen Gustin

Lab Manager

Aspen completed her Masters in Animal Science studying Neuroepigenetics at Virginia Tech in 2022. She was the Kindsvater Lab manager working on Summer Flounder research, and now is a lab technician in Biological Sciences at VT.
Catherine Carrion

B.S. in Marine Fisheries Conservation '24

Catherine worked with Hailey on Summer Flounder and also completed a marine science REU at Rutgers University.
Julian Quinones

Lab Technician & B.S. in Marine Fisheries Conservation '23

Julian worked with Hailey on Summer Flounder reproduction, among other things, following his graduation in 2023.
Julia Coan

B.S. in Biology and Wildlife Conservation '23

Julia worked with Charlie on aquatic and terrestrial salamanders in the lab.
Corinne Duffy

B.S. in Wildlife Conservation '23

Corinne is interested in herpetology and loves working in the field with salamanders and turtles. She helped keep our salamander colony healthy.
Nathan Ferguson

B.S. in Wildlife & Freshwater Fish Conservation (Human Dimensions option) '23

Nathan's focus is on invasive species and their impacts on native fauna. He worked with Dr. Kindsvater on local stream fish occupancy survey. He is now a graduate student at VT working on hellbenders with Dr. Bill Hopkins.
Miriam Hilt

Lab Technician & B.S. in Wildlife Conservation '23

Miriam worked with Charlie studying growth and metabolism of Appalachian salamanders and kept our salamander colony healthy for many years.
Joseph Nichols

B.S. IN FRESHWATER FISHERIES CONSERVATION '23

Joe helped Charlie Holguin to study salamander growth and Hailey Conrad with her Summer Flounder project.
Kaitlyn Theberge

M.S. Student '22

Kaitlyn completed her undergraduate degrees in Environmental Science and French at Bowdoin College in 2016. Before joining the lab, she gained experience working on small-scale fisheries, the aquaculture industry, and public education.
Madeline Burgess

B.S. in Marine Fisheries Conservation '22

Madeline worked with Hailey on Summer Flounder, among other things, and is now a graduate student at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.
Samuel van Noy

Lab Technician

Sam completed his undergrad at Virginia Tech with a degree in Wildlife Conservation in 2021. He assisted in studying Plethodontid salamanders in the field and lab as a technician after graduation.
Dr. Cat Horswill

Postdoc (Rutgers)

Cat is now a researcher at the Zoological Society of London and University College London. During her postdoc, Cat worked on imputing life history traits of data-poor tunas and sharks in collaboration with Jason Matthiopoulos at the University of Glasgow.
Dr. Chris Mull

Postdoc (Rutgers)

Chris is now a researcher at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. During his postdoc, Chris led the assembly and publication of the shark trait database (www.Sharkipedia.org).
Dr. Kiva Oken

Postdoc (Rutgers)

Kiva worked on a project estimating differential mortality of females, males, and terminal sex-changing males using Black Sea Bass tagging data, in collaboration with Olaf Jensen at Rutgers. She is now a fisheries scientist at the NWFSC in Seattle.