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Dr. Holly Kindsvater
Principal Investigator
Dr. Kindsvater has an undergraduate degree in Marine Biology from UC Santa Cruz and a Ph.D. from Yale University in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. In 2019, after several years doing research, she joined the faculty in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation at Virginia Tech. Outside of work she likes to travel, hike, read, and spend time with her family.
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Graduate Students
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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
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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.
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Morgan Crum
M.S. Student
Morgan finished her B.S. in Wildlife Conservation at FT in 2025. Her M.S. research on salamander ecology on Whitetop Mountain in southwest VA is co-advised by Kevin Hamed.
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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. He finished his M.S. on salamander growth in 2023. He works with Kevin Hamed on salamander occupancy and ecology in southwest VA.
WALL OF FAME
Lab alumni
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Dr. Emma Hultin
Ph.D. student '26
Emma was co-advised by Leandro Castello and graduated with a Ph.D. in 2026. Their research focused on analysis of socio-environmental factors contributing to the sustainability of the Arapaima fishery in the Amazon. Emma is a 2026 Commonwealth Fellow of VA Sea Grant, working on the Healthy Waters program at Virginia DCR.
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Kalin Ferguson
M.S. Student '26
Kalin obtained her B.S. at Virginia Tech in both Freshwater Fish Conservation and Wildlife Conservation in 2023. Kalin's master's thesis focused on four-toed salamanders. Current position: Academic Advisor, COE at Virginia Tech
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Sage Albers
B.S. in Freshwater Fish Conservation '26
Sage's undergrad research on aquatic biodiversity in our local watershed was supported by the Global Change Center.
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Nate Lambert
B.S. in Freshwater Fish Conservation '26
Nate's undergrad research on sedimentation and biodiversity in our local watershed was supported by the Global Change Center.
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Jonah Bowser
B.S. in Freshwater Fish Conservation '26
Jonah's research on fish biodiversity in the Tom's creek watershed was supported by the Global Change Center
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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 the evolution and ecology of fishes, reptiles, and amphibians. He is now a Research Scientist at UW Madison.
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Dr. Nathan Pacoureau
Postdoc
Nathan finished his Ph.D. in 2018 at the Chizé Centre for Biological Studies in France. After several years as a postdoc in Canada and at VT, he is a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow in Brest, France.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Julia Coan
B.S. in Biology and Wildlife Conservation '23
Julia worked with Charlie on aquatic and terrestrial salamanders in the lab.
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Corinne Duffy
B.S. in Wildlife Conservation '23
Corinne helped keep our salamander colony healthy.
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Nathan Ferguson
B.S. in Wildlife & Freshwater Fish Conservation (Human Dimensions option) '23
Nathan worked on local stream fish occupancy survey. He is now a graduate student at VT working on hellbenders with Dr. Bill Hopkins.
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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.
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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.
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Kaitlyn Theberge
M.S. Student '22
Kaitlyn completed her undergraduate degrees in Environmental Science and French at Bowdoin College in 2016. Prior to joining the lab, she worked in oyster aquaculture and public education. She was a 2023 Knauss Fellow with VA Sea Grant and now works for NOAA Fisheries
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Madeline Pitsenbarger
B.S. in Marine Fisheries Conservation '22
Madeline worked with Hailey on Summer Flounder, among other things. After graduation, she earned a M.S. at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.
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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.
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Dr. Cat Horswill
Postdoc (Rutgers)
Cat is a Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow at the University of Cambridge. During her postdoc, Cat worked on imputing life history traits of data-poor tunas and sharks with Jason Matthiopoulos at the University of Glasgow.
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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).
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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.