Pia Gabriel

Sr. Pre-Award Specialist

Sam Caudill

Executive Support Coordinator

Kacie Flynn, CRA

Associate Vice President for Research

Executive Director

Danial Nayeri, 2023

Thesis:

Using Landscape Dynamic Simulations to Model Mexican Spotted Owl’s Habitat and Connectivity Response to Future Fire Regimes and Climate Change Scenarios

Danial has joined Wan lab in Fall 2021 as a graduate student. He is building ensemble multi-scale habitat suitability modelsfor Mexican spotted owls in Canyonlands. Understanding the process of habitat selection of Mexican spotted owls in canyonlands and comparing it with their habitat selection process in forests will help inform effective land management decisions and conservation actions for this threatened subspecies. He also works on human-wildlife conflict and large carnivore ecology.

Rebeca Becdach, 2025

Thesis:

Understanding wildlife habitat in tropical mountain cloud forests in Panama using landscape ecological models.

Rebeca is working on landscape ecological models to understand wildlife habitat in tropical mountain cloud forests inPanama, with a specific focus on big cats and their prey.

Brittany Welch, 2024

Thesis:

Post-fire vegetation and pyrodiversity influence breeding abundances of Lewis's woodpeckers in the eastern Cascades, Oregon

Logan Hysen, 2023

Thesis:

Using multiscale ensemble habitat models to identify wildfire risk to habitat for an iconic forest species

I am a landscape ecologist interested in asking questions at the intersection of wildlife, humans,
and the environment. I am especially interested in understanding how landscape disturbances,
which are often caused or exacerbated by humans, affect wildlife habitat and their ability to
move across the landscape at various spatial and temporal scales. For my thesis, I am building
multi-scale habitat models to understand how northern spotted owls select habitat in
northwestern California and where they are at the most risk from wildfire.

Breana Hernandez,

Thesis:

Wetland biodiversity surveyed via eDNA