Graduate Students

Learn more about our graduate program.

Francis Anaya

M.S. Student

francis.anaya@botanicgardens.org

Department of Integrative Biology​
University of Colorado Denver

Franki is looking at the efficacy of seeding as a post-wildfire management practice. She is working with the Bureau of Land Management and using their Assessment, Inventory and Monitoring data to determine if seeding the Beaver Creek burn scar in Jackson County, Colorado has resulted in native vegetation regeneration or surface stabilization

Brielle Cerep-Funke

M.S. Student

brielle.cerepfunke@botanicgardens.org

Department of Integrative Biology​
University of Colorado Denver

Brielle’s research interests include urban ecology and native plant species. She is especially interested in the resiliency of native plants in the face of climate change and urbanization, and how this resiliency may benefit plant communities in a predicted hotter and drier future.

Tiffany Gentry

M.S. Student

tiffany.gentry@botanicgardens.org

Department of Integrative Biology
University of Colorado Denver

Tiffany is interested in the species-level phylogenetics with applications to conservation. Her thesis focuses on the origins of polyploidy in the genus Eutrema (Brassicaceae), and, the evolutionary history of the E. penlandii-E.edwardsii species complex.

My-Lan Le

M.S. Student

my-lan.le@botanicgardens.org

Department of Integrative Biology
University of Colorado Denver

My-Lan is investigating the ecology and distribution of rare plant species. She is specifically interested in the differences between rare plant populations, including their reproductive success, pollinators and plant communities.

Jessica Loeffler

M.S. Student

jess.loeffler@botanicgardens.org

Department of Integrative Biology​
University of Colorado Denver

Jess is an incoming graduate student with an interest in plant-fungal relationships and learning about the diversity of these interactions. She is specifically interested in researching questions that pertain to mycoheterotrophy.

Justin Loucks

M.S. Student

justin.loucks@botanicgardens.org

Department of Integrative Biology​
University of Colorado Denver

Justin is interested in fungal diversity and ecology and enjoys traveling and documenting rare and unique fungi. His research employs DNA barcoding and phylogenetics to systematically examine the diversity and distributions of taxa in the fungal family Bankeraceae within western North America.

Roy Rutherford

M.S. Student

roy.rutherford@botanicgardens.org

Department of Integrative Biology
University of Colorado Denver

Roy is interested in Urban and Evolutionary Ecology, more specifically how urban evolution and pre-adaptation can inform environmentally conscious land-use. They’re thesis concerns how wetland vegetation and aquatic invertebrate communities are shaped by stormwater systems and how this may relate to water quality.

Audrey Spencer

Ph.D. Student

audrey.spencer@ucdenver.edu

Department of Integrative Biology
University of Colorado Denver

Audrey is a plant taxonomist and biogeographer interested in the origins of the flora of the Southern Rockies. Her research combines phylogenetic, biogeographic, and morphologic lines of evidence to clarify the taxonomic relationships within Physocarpus, a genus of deciduous shrubs in family Rosaceae.

Previous Graduate Students and Thesis Titles

  • Megan Clark, M.S., University of Colorado – Denver, 2023, Intraspecific variation and local adaptation in native Colorado grassland restoration plant species
  • Alissa Iverson, M.S., University of Colorado – Denver, 2023, Evaluating potential for plant community and functional change in an urban canal undergoing hydrologic disturbance from green stormwater infrastructure 
  • Carla DeMasters, M.S., University of Colorado – Denver, 2017, How do native annual and biennial species affect Bromus tectorum L. (Poaceae) abundance?
  • Liam Cullinane, M.S., University of Colorado – Denver, 2020, City Bees: An investigation of the drivers of bee abundance and bee richness along a rural-to-urban gradient
  • Margo Yousse, M.S., University of Colorado – Denver, 2020, Beaver dam analogs impact riparian vegetation communities
  • Amanda Miller, M.S., University of Colorado – Denver, 2021, How herbicide and seed treatments impact pollinator habitat in restoration of abandoned rangelands
  • Katherine Fu, Ph.D., University of Colorado – Denver, 2021, Implications of seed source on North American shortgrass prairie under climate change
  • Gary Olds, M.S., University of Colorado – Denver, 2021, Applying a Modified Metabarcoding Approach for the Sequencing of Macrofungal Specimens
  • Emily Orr, M.S., University of Colorado – Denver, 2022, Population genomic analysis of the rare, narrow endemic, Astragalus microcymbus

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