Camille Butkus
Camille is interested in understanding the biogeochemical processes responsible for the movement and transformation of nutrients in plants, soil, and water. She supports lab work in the Schuur, Mack, and Walker labs.
Hillary Cooper
Prior to working in ECOSS, Hillary focused on the ecological and evolutionary responses of riparian trees to climate change in the Southwest as a PhD student and later post-doc here at NAU. As a researcher in the Mack/Walker lab, she will be exploring the interplay of wildfire and soil carbon Read more…
Ella Santana-Propper
Ella has a passion for science communication and accessibility and enjoyed sharing her deep curiosity about all scales of life working as a science teacher. As a scientist, the running theme of her research background has been understanding the distribution, diversity, and function of organisms. More recently she is interested Read more…
Bella Skotnick
Bella works at ECOSS as a Student Administrative Assistant. She is a Bio-Medical Science Major here at NAU and will graduate in the Spring of 2026. After graduation Bella plans to attend a Physician Assistant program with hopes of becoming a surgical PA.
Zacharaih Madsen
Zach worked at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Crested Butte, CO, during his senior year as an undergraduate and continued there for another year after graduation. He utilized drones and GIS to create remote sensing imagery, studying the effects of microtopography on plant phenotypic plasticity. Following this, he pursued Read more…
Sierra Jech
Sierra Jech is a postdoc with the Drylands & Intermountain Restoration Team (DIRT Lab). Her primary role is helping to coordinate CrustNet (https://crustnet.org/index.html), a globally distributed network of biological soil crust research sites. Sierra is launching CrustNet in North America by installing 10 sites by the end of 2025. Sierra Read more…
Stephanie Mayer
Formerly an Assistant Director for ECOSS, Stephanie currently works for the Center for Community Health and Engaged Research (CHER).
Cara Fields
Cara is interested in carbon cycling and carbon sequestration in trees, especially really old trees. She graduated from Bowdoin College with a degree in biology and a concentration in ecology, evolution, and marine biology. At Bowdoin, she researched the effects of temperature and drought stress on ponderosa pine physiology. In Read more…
Bjorn Larson
Bjorn Larson has been working in arctic Alaska for the past three summers, and he is excited to continue studying such a fascinating landscape as it goes through rapid changes. He is working to understand how changing climate and disturbance regimes are changing plant communities.
Abby Hay
Abby completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Dayton where she studied woody invasive plants. She then completed her Masters degree in biology at Miami University (OH) studying the effects of deer and invasive plants on native seedlings. She also worked in environmental consulting and as a Visiting Instructor Read more…