Chris Beachy, Ted Joanen Professor, Dept. of Biological Sciences, Southeastern Louisiana University, BA College of Wooster, 1986, MS Western Carolina University, 1988, PhD University of Louisiana, Lafayette, 1992
After 20 wonderful years in the northern Great Plains, Beachy and his family decided to trade one extreme climate for another and returned to south Louisiana in 2013. Beachy enjoys hanging with his family, doing larval amphibian biology, and watching and playing soccer and racquetball. (I know: who plays racquetball anymore?)
CV (pdf)
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The AGP team
(If you really want to know what it’s like to work in the AGP and spend two years in Hammond, your best idea is to contact anyone on this list.)
Bee Klahs, BS Iowa State University 2022
Bee is testing how different flow rates affect gill size in salamanders. At present, they’re growing larval Eurycea cirrigera in flow chambers at different flow regimes. Bee likes all sorts of biodiversity from arthropods to amphibians, and also is very fond of loud EDM.
Bee loves frisbee golf, “cute lil’ guys” (i.e., critters) and especially loves this cat!
contact Bee at abby.klahs@selu.edu
Maggie Keller, BS Lenoir Rhyne University 2022
Maggie is studying how forest salamanders, specificically Plethodon mississippi, interact and influence the leaf litter community in southeast Louisiana. Maggie is an amazing artist and illustrator. Ask her for images from her field notebooks: works of art! She loves her cat, nurturing her curiosity, hanging out in the woods, and (obviously) making art.
Want some art to see or need some art done for you or for your project? Check out her website
Email is magdalene.keller@selu.edu
and also reach out to her twitter/X
Jasmine Nasser, BS Southeastern Louisiana University 2022
Jasmine got her BS here at Southeastern, liked it so much, and is sticking around for two more years. She’s done work on geometric morphometrics of snakes, turtles, and salamanders. Now she’s exploring thermal preferences in larval stream salamanders.
She likes reading and has been doing research since she was an undergrad here at Southeastern. She has also worked in Chris Murray’s lab.
Reach Jasmine at jasmine.nasser@selu.edu
Noah Irwin, BS Piedmont University 2022
Another student sent to the AGP by Carlos Camp! After successfully escaping a career in the human health sciences, Noah has just come to herps and looooves them. He’s taking his excellent biomedical background and using it to examine geographic variation in metamorphosis in plethodontid salamanders.
Noah is interesting and knows it. He says “Grew up in Athens and am a big Bulldogs fan. Ran cross country and track for 12 years 4 of which were in college. I have a stutter. I’ve performed live with a band. Won a contest eating a 5 lb burrito.”
Reach Noah at noah.irwin@selu.edu
Gretchen Hilt, BA University of Tampa 2022
Gretchen arrived a SCUBA divemaster marine biologist and is taking her skillset to the freshwater: the DEEP freshwater. She is developing eDNA assays for the super cool super hard to get-to Georgia Blind Salamander, Eurycea wallacei.
Gretchen lives a double life: ecology with the AGP and eDNA in Kyle Piller’s lab. They make fun of her line-dancing. We don’t know why.
email Gretchen at gretchen.hilt@selu.edu
and on twitter/X @GretchenHilt
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GRADUATES FROM THE AMPHIBIAN GROWTH PROJECT
Corey Samples, BS, Louisiana Tech University 2018, MS, Southeastern Louisiana University 2022
Corey is funny guy: while in the AGP he worked on FERAL HOGS. It was actually pretty cool, and he was another double-teamer: he was co-advised by Teague O’Mara of Bat Conservation International. Corey explored how hogs impact one of the rarest ecosystems on Earth: the beautiful Longleaf Pine Savannah.
After teaching for a year at a magnet school in New Orleans, Corey has come home and is an instructor here at Southeastern! Contact Corey at corey.samples@selu.edu
Brittany Maldonado, BS, Tulane University 2018, MS, Southeastern Louisiana University 2022
Brittany is the best naturalist that we have had here at the AGP and at Southeastern. She worked to resolve the life history of the beautiful Three-lined Salamander, Eurycea guttolineata.
While here, Brittany was an important part of the amazing Vert Museum here at Southeastern that is directed by Kyle Piller. Brittany is also is a tenacious field herpetologist and has a host of images of her holding water snakes and where she’s covered in blood!
Since graduating from the AGP, she has moved to the North where she is now an instructor at Mt. Holyoke College in Massachusetts.
Claire Crookston, BS, Colorado State University 2019, MS, Southeastern Louisiana University 2022
Claire examined population variation in skeletal development (not cranial, not limbs, not vertebrae; ALL of it) and completed a cleared-and-stained series that is maybe the largest ecological series of C&S’ed specimens ever. Her specimens are beautiful; ask her for images!
She has taken her anatomical expertise to study for a PhD in functional kinematics in the lab of the great Steve Deban at the Univ. South Florida.
Reach Claire at ccrookston@usf.edu
Tyler Brock, BS, Piedmont College, 2019, MS Southeastern Louisiana University, 2021
Tyler worked on the Patch-nosed Salamander, Urspelerpes brucei. (Weird pure coincidence: this salamander is named for Beachy’s MS advisor, Richard Bruce.) He was lucky to attend Piedmont University and work with Carlos Camp, so he came full of enthusiasm and knowledge about plethodontids! (Finally!) His surveys have helped to elucidate the life history of this remarkable and recently discovered salamander. The list is short, but there aren’t many that know more about Urspelerpes than Tyler.
Tyler is now working on his PhD at Ole Miss.
email TBrock at tlbrock2@go.olemiss.edu
(I think he’s on instagram too where he loves poster salamander and herp images.)
Chris Cannon, BS, Southeast Missouri State University, 2018, MS Southeastern Louisiana University, 2020
Chris is on twitter: @Chris_L_Cannon
Chris started working on the Eastern Newt, Notophthalmus viridescens, and then shifted to the Western Tiger Salamander, Ambystoma mavortium. Both of these species exhibit facultative paedomorphosis. So, as you may have guessed, Cannon studied facultative paedomorphosis. He joined us after doing undergraduate research on Ambystoma maculatum eggs in Jon Davenport’s lab at SEMO. He likes doing outdoor biology and scuba diving.
Chris is now working in Missouri for the Department of Conservation where he directs water quality in southeastern Missouri.
email Chris at ccannon28@gmail.com.
Juan Manuel Pacheco Molina, BS, University of El Salvador, 2009, MS, Southeastern Louisiana University, 2020
Juan studied the effect of probiotics on gut microbiomes in the axolotl, Ambystoma mexicanum. Further, he explored how a difference in gut microbiome affects several aspects of development, including skin response to wounding and differential allocation to metamorphosis, storage and reproduction. Juan grew up in Libertad. He has extensive background in microbiology, chemistry and pharmacy (he is a licensed pharmacist in El Salvador). Juan also speaks four languages!
Juan is now teaching high school science in New Orleans.
Emily Bierbaum, BS, Iowa State University, 2017, MS, Southeastern Louisiana University, 2019
Emily studied skeletal variation within the bizarre salamander genus Amphiuma (that’s A. tridactylum, the Three-toed Amphiuma, in this photo) and across families of salamanders. She was co-advised by Beachy and Raul Diaz. After working in a molecular lab back home in Iowa for a year, Emily has joined the lab of the great Ron Bonett at the University of Tulsa.
email Em at emily.bierbaum@gmail.com
Taston Brookshire, BS, Southeastern Louisiana University, 2016, MS, Southeastern Louisiana University, 2018
Taston studied the impacts of several species of leaf litter on growth, survival and development of tadpoles of the Gulf Coast Toad, Incillius nebulifer. He continues to enjoy biostatistics, math and modeling. Taston is now working for Elos Environmental where he is the master GIS guy, but also does just about everything else. And he also continues to dig hanging with his wife and two kids. (Taz also has mad skills in graffiti art!)
James Erdmann, BS, University of Wyoming, 2015, MS, Southeastern Louisiana University, 2017.
James is an outstanding naturalist and enjoys all biology. In his thesis, he showed how toe vibrations by the Gulf Coast Toad, Incillius nebulifer, are used to affect prey behavior and increase predator efficiency. Watch his July 2017 thesis defense on youtube.
After graduation, he spent a few months helping Kyle Piller's lab. Then, some conservation biology on the wonderful Wyoming Toad, Anaxyrus baxteri, and then research teching for the U. Wyoming on the adorable Spotted Skunk. After some time at Oklahoma State University, Jimbo is now doing work in Norway! James is super active in the herp scientific societies. Want to get involved? He has tips.
James website James is on twitter:@muddynat
James is also somewhere on Mastodon.
email James at muddynaturalist@gmail.com
Melanie Partin, BS, Arkansas State University, 2009, MS, Southeastern Louisiana University, 2017.
Melanie has experience in combining field biology with endocrinology. In her thesis, she explored local variables that influence stress during calling Cope's Grey Treefrog, Dryophytes chrysocelis. After traveling, she plans to continue this work in conservation efforts.
After working on these small adorable frogs, Mel has spent time chasing King Cobras as part of the Sakaerat Conservation and Snake Education team in Thailand, doing bat surveys in Kentucky, working as a lab tech at the University of Arkansas Medical Center, and is now part of a coral reef conservation and recovery team in the Philippines. If you need someone with a sense of adventure as part of your team, Mel is the one!
email Mel at mpartin7@hotmail
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Honorable mentions
Those that were important parts of the AGP, but not “official” AGP grads
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Sometimes folks spend an “incomplete” time at the AGP. This means that they start and then are offered a job! Who would say no to that?!? Two important examples are Anna Lander and Kandace Leduff. Anna was a first year AGPer, and was offered a sweet job at Tulane. Kandace was a Southeastern grad who came back to just hang out and gain research experiences to enhance her resume. Then she gets hired by Elos Environmental! Sound familiar? Yup, she was hired by AGP grad Taz (see above) at Elos. We love when folks leave early because they get offered a better opportunity!
Anna and Kandace can be seen here: Anna is on the right and Kandace is second from the left. (Joslyn Kent, a second year at Southeastern is on the left, and our own Bee is second from the right.) They are trying how to get an intact clutch of eggs of Eurycea cirrigera home safely.
