Research Scientist,

Salmon Assessment Section,

Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Adjunct Professor,

Department of Biological

Sciences,

Simon Fraser University

assessment of indicators of conservation status.  I completed my PhD at Simon Fraser University in the Department of Biological Sciences where I worked on understanding the role parasite behaviour plays in mediating pathogen transmission and how it can structure parasite and host populations, communities and dynamics (pdf). This work was based out of the “Dill” lab, a member of the Earth to Ocean Research Group at Simon Fraser University and the Salmon Coast Field Station in the Broughton Archipelago.

About me.

I am an applied population ecologist whose work aims to improve decision making in the face of uncertainty. 

In 2018 I joined Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), first as the Program Head for Sablefish (aka Black Cod), a long lived demersal species that supports a commercially important fishery off of Canada’s west coast, and more recently (2021) as a Research Scientist. My research program is focused on quantitative methods, salmon-ecosystem interactions, and fisheries risk assessment and management.

Though I have worked across a range of taxa, much of my work is focused on the conservation and management of Pacific salmon.  Prior to joining DFO I was a Senior Systems Ecologist and Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences Team lead at ESSA Technologies, a small consulting firm in Vancouver. Over my 5 years at ESSA I worked on a diversity of projects providing science advice to governments, NGO’s, First Nations and industry.

From 2011 to 2013 I was a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University with Andrew Cooper and Randall Peterman. We worked on salmon macroecology and the quantitative