A bit of background

I have been a member of the faculty in Environmental Studies (Zoology) at The Evergreen State College since 2002.

In 2003, one year into my first faculty position, I was deciding between returning to Madagascar to continue my research program on the social behavior and life history of Madagascan herps, and initiating a research program in the Bocas del Toro archipelago of Panama, to investigate the role of sexual selection in the sympatric speciation of vertebrates, using dendrobatids (poison-dart frogs) as a model system. The Bocas del Toro archipelago was contiguous with the mainland approximately 6,000 years ago, becoming a series of islands as sea levels stabilized following the last glaciation. This has isolated several populations of the dart-poison frog, Dendrobates pumilio, which now exhibits remarkable morphological diversity.



Four distinct morphs of D. pumilio from the island
of Bastimentos, in Bocas del Toro.   © 1998 H. Heying

This diversification in forms is observable not only between isolated populations (on different islands), but also within islands. Mechanisms that may be driving this diversification include niche partitioning, reduced viability of hybrids, and positive assortative mating.

Then life happened...

Long-standing theoretical interest in the evolution of parental care has now manifested personally: my husband Bret Weinstein (also a biologist) and I have two wonderful little boys, Zack and Toby, born in April of 2004 and 2006, respectively. Reproduction, it turns out, can really take it out of a person. So for these past few years I've focused on my children and my teaching, and have not re-upped any tropical research program. Yet.

Once upon a time, I also made pottery, mountain biked, played ultimate frisbee, and wrote, among other things. These things can, I tell myself, still happen.