People in the BLE Lab
Emily Holt
I grew up in Denver, Colorado. In college, I developed an interest in plants and studied them for my MS. I then transitioned to studying lichens for my PhD and had the opportunity to work in the wilds of northwest Alaska for my project. After my doctorate, I focused on teaching and developed my skills as a biology education researcher. Today, I do research doing both lichen ecology work (community analysis) and biology education research (quantitative and qualitative approaches).
Stephanie Smith is a field biologist and a plant explorer. She has worked on plant conservation, ecological restoration, monitoring, and adaptive land management in California, Montana, New York, and the American NE and Midwest. Her Master’s thesis studied medicinal plants among the Ngöbe indigenous communities in the Ngöbe-Bugle Comarca of Panama. Her ethnobotanical pursuits have centered in Panama and the Colombian Amazon. Stephanie’s dissertation studies the critically endangered lichen Erioderma pedicellatum, exploring the distribution of lichen communities in Denali National Park in response to beetle-kill impacts, and ethnolichenological work in central Alaska.
Stephanie Smith
Kaela Clabaugh Howell
Kaela Clabaugh Howell is passionate about science education and furthering our understanding of how to best teach future generations. She earned her M.S. in Biological Scienced from UNC in 2023. Her thesis project studied student conceptions of climate change. She studied what types of biases or scientific reasonings students used when defending their predictions of climate change.
Jessica Duke is originally from Nashville, TN and received her B.S. in Biology from Middle Tennessee State University before pursuing her M.S. in Biology from Western Carolina University, which she completed in 2014. Her research at WCU focused on amphibian ecology and conservation. Jessica’s dissertation studies climate change education, specifically researching undergraduate student perceptions of climate change. Her research examines the ability of undergraduate biology students to recognize the localized effects of climate change. While not teaching or doing research, Jessica enjoys playing ice hockey, trail-running, paddle boarding, and hiking/camping in the beautiful mountains of Colorado with her husband, Cameron, and poodle, Nelson. Read more on Jessica's website.
Jessica Duke
Ryan Dunk
Victoria Duncan earned her B.S. in Biology and Science Education from Western Kentucky University and an M.S. in Biology from Clemson University. Originally from Nashville, TN, she has a background in secondary science education and has previously taught high school biology and physical science. Victoria’s dissertation research focuses on equitable and inclusive STEM classrooms in higher education institutions. Her research explores how higher education STEM practitioners define equity and inclusion, follows the process of an instructor changing their curriculum to become more inclusive, and gathers student perceptions of equity and inclusion in biology courses. Victoria is now the Assistant Director of Precollegiate and Collegiate Programs in the Mathematics and Science Teaching (MAST) Institute at UNC.
Victoria Duncan
Emily Royse
Ash Heim earned her B.A. in Zoology from the University of New Hampshire in 2013, M.S. in Zoology from Colorado State University in 2016, and Ph.D. in Biological Education from UNC in 2020. Her dissertation work focused on comparing and quantifying learner-centeredness in undergraduate biology classrooms, as well as how undergraduates learn biology in informal settings like zoos. Ash also has myriad interests within biology education research, including assessment of biology undergraduates’ critical thinking, exploration of the social networks of undergraduates and instructors in physics courses, and development of pedagogical tools focused on learner-centeredness and inclusive teaching. Read more on Ash’s website.
Ashley Heim
Anna Freundlich
Anna Freundlich earned her bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences from Bucknell University in 2014 and, after several years working as a botanical technician, transitioned to studying lichens at UNCO. Specifically, she studied lichen response to spruce-beetle disturbance in northwestern Colorado and graduated with her M.S. in 2019. She is currently a PhD student at Montana State University studying the plant, pollinator, and bird community-level responses to herbicide application in eastern Montana. She enjoys hiking, downhill skiing, and ceramics in her spare time.
