Current Students

Laura Bried

Laura Bried graduated from Paul Smiths College in the Adirondacks of upstate New York with a Bachelor’s degree in Natural Resources: Management & Policy prior to beginning her studies in the Biodiversity, Conservation & Policy program at University at Albany. She currently works for The Research Foundation of the State University of New York, studying historic land use change in eastern New York using GIS. Her research interests focus on land use and land cover change over time as it relates to human demography and ecological change.

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Andrea Chaloux

Andrea graduated from Cornell University in 2003 with a B.S. in Soils Science. As an undergrad she worked at Cornell’s Arnot Forest, studying the relative abundance of reptile and amphibian species in forest plots with different management histories. Andrea is a part-time student and currently works as an assistant biologist for the New York Natural Heritage Program. She enjoys animals, music, and hiking.

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Christina Chiappetta

Christina Chiappetta graduated from Siena College in 2008 with a B.S. in Biology and a certificate in Environmental Studies. While at Siena, she worked in Trinidad on her project regarding the biological control of mosquitoes using the Trinidadian killifish. Since moving to UAlbany, Christina has had an internship at the Stormwater Coalition of Albany County where she is involved with water pollution prevention activities. She has also become very interested in GIS, and is pursuing the GIS Certificate; she hopes to incorporate her new skill set into her thesis work. She is particularly interested in water-related conservation issues. Christina spends her free time playing rugby, coaching, and being active outdoors.

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Anna Christie-Carnicella

Anna received her B.A. in Biology with a minor in French in 2006 from Hanover College. After a year of graduate school in secondary education and teaching high school in southern Indiana, she relocated with her husband to Albany in 2008. Anna’s research interests include ecological economics and using interdisciplinary approaches to address issues in environmental policy, especially landscape conservation. Anna spent the 2010 spring semester at an internship with the Land Trust Alliance’s New York program, completing a program evaluation of its Conservation Partnership Program that provides grants to New York land trusts. Her thesis research aims to use system dynamics modeling to evaluate strategic conservation within land conservancies.

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Anne Duperault

Anne Duperault graduated from New York University in 2002 with a B.A. in Politics. As an undergraduate she worked at the New York League of Conservation Voters. She also had the opportunity to go to the small Greek island of Psara and published an updated survey of its reptiles and
amphibians. Anne is currently working at the New York State Biodiversity Research Institute. Her interests include environmental contaminants, reptile and amphibian conservation and environmental policy.

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Michael Gayle

Although Mike is interested in virtually all aspects of biodiversity and conservation, he is particularly interested in aquatic environments and has a specific passion for coastal zone ecosystems. He assists in coral reef health monitoring by serving as a national trainer, team leader and team scientist for Reef Check and helps to inform the public about environmental issues impacting our aquatic world through involvement as a Project AWARE educator. Mike decided to pursue part-time study in the Biodiversity, Conservation, and Policy program to become a better informed citizen and more effective in aquatic biodiversity research, conservation, and advocacy.

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Julianna Hunt

Julianna Hunt is a part-time student who graduated from SUNY New Paltz in 2002 with a B.S. in Organismal and Environmental Biology. While in college, she spent time working for the National Park Service at Cape Hatteras National Seashore doing sea turtle and endangered shore bird conservation. At New Paltz, she had the honor of working with Dr. Heinz Meng. Julianna is interested in conservation grazing research. She likes to spend her free time hiking, biking, and bird watching.

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Lana Lau

Lana is a master’s student in the Biodiversity program. She graduated from Cornell University in 2003 with a B.A. in Biological Sciences and Linguistics, after which she spent one year teaching in a tiny town in Niigata, Japan. As an undergraduate, she worked with Dr. Emmett Duffy at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science on the effects of invertebrate grazer diversity on the invasibility of seagrass beds in Chesapeake Bay. Lana is interested in invasive species and community ecology. She enjoys learning languages, cooking, and hiking, and is looking forward to knitting the wool from Dr. Gary Kleppel’s prize-winning sheep.

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Shanon Rauch

Shannon joined the iodiversity, Conservation, & Policy Program in the Fall of 2007. She graduated from the University at Albany with a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Geography. As an undergraduate, she worked on a research project with Dr. Kleppel studying the effects of land use on wetland ecosystems. Shannon currently works part time at the Department of Environmental Conservation in the Program Management Office where she helps with various projects related to the Brownfield and Groundwater Program. She is interested in pursuing research related to land use, wetlands protection, endangered species, or environmental policy.

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Tara Seoane

 

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Patty Shultis

Patty has a BS degree from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry where she majored in environmental and forest biology. She has been involved in projects focused on storm water and wetland management which, along with her love of aquatic science and policy, has inspired her to focus her thesis research on water-related topics.

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Matt Sundheim

Matt is a Biodiversity Master’s student. He recently graduated with a B.S. in Biology from Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. As an undergrad, he worked with mouse populations, comparing track tube and livetrapping methods. He also had the opportunity to spend several weeks in Costa Rica mist netting song birds. After deciding not to pursue a career in ecology research, Matt came to U Albany in search of his calling. He is passionate about preserving and restoring our natural areas, and he is thinking about pursuing policy work.

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William Valleau

Bill Valleau received his bachelor's degree in Environmental Science from The University at Albany. He currently works as a Graduate Assistant for the Sustainability Council at UAlbany. His interests are in sustainable agricultural systems and conservation practices in general.

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