Past Students and Researchers

Post-Doctoral Associates 
  • Aniruddha Belsare - 2019-2020 - Current position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Emory University.
  • Sonja Christensen - 2017-2020 - Current position: Research Specialist, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University.
  • Joanne Crawford - 2017-2019 - Current position: Wildlife Research Biologist, Minnesota DNR.
  • Chad Parent - 2013 - 2016 - Current position: Statistician and Harvest Survey Coordinator, North Dakota Fish and Game. 
  • Amy Dechen Quinn - 2010 – 2011 - Current position: Assistant Professor, Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Environmental Science, State University of New York - Cobleskill.
  • David Williams - 2010 – 2012 - Current position: Assistant Professor and Associate Director, Boone and Crockett Quantitative Wildlife Center, Michigan State University.

​​Doctoral Degree 
  • Christopher Hoving, Ph.D. 2021 - Prescribed fire, climate change, and the transformation of oak social-ecological complex adaptive systems. Current position: Adaptation Specialist, Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
  • Jonathan Cook, Ph.D. 2020 - Risk, uncertainty and decision-making: assessing chronic wasting disease occurrence risk across an emergence spectrum. Current position: Postdoctoral Research Associate, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Center. 
  • Kathryn Frens, Ph.D. 2020 - Conservation in a full world: exploring the relationships among land use policy, human communities, and ecological integrity in the northern forest. Current position: Fishery Management Specialist, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 
  • Rebecca Cain, Ph.D. 2020  - Evaluating the impacts of landscape and management change on the abundance and distribution of record book white-tailed deer across a large geographic region. Current position: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Purdue University. 
  • Sonja Christensen, Ph.D. 2017 - Population impacts and disease patterns of hemorrhagic disease in white-tailed deer: understanding the role of an emergent disease. Current position: Research Specialist, Michigan State University. 
  • Andrew Crosby, Ph.D. 2017 - Conserving avian biodiversity on managed forest landscapes: the importance of pattern and scale. Current position: Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Alberta. 
  • Bryan Stevens, Ph.D. 2016 - Structural uncertainty and the management of modern wild turkey harvests. Current position: Research Scientist, Idaho Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, University of Idaho. 
  • Andrea Bowling - Ph.D. 2014 - Landscape-level effects of weather and land cover on wild turkey abundance, productivity, and regional harvest potential in New York State. Current position: Lecturer, California State University, Dominguez Hills.
  • Marta Jarzyna - Ph.D. 2014 - Macroecology of breeding birds of New York State: Influences of climate change, landscape fragmentation, and spatial scale.  Current position: Assistant Professor, Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, Ohio State University. 
  • Nathan Snow - Ph.D. 2014 - Hotspots, underreporting, and dynamic space-time influences of wildlife-vehicle collisions.  Current position: Research Biologist, USDA/APHIS/Wildlife Services, National Wildlife Research Center. Fort Collins, CO.  

Masters Degree 
  • Leslie Skora - M.S. 2021 - Population dynamics of brown bears along Brooks River in Katmai National Park, Alaska. Current position: Bear Biologist, Katmai National Park and Preserve. 
  • Ashley Huinker - M.S. 2020 - American woodcock habitat selection and reproductive success in Michigan. Current position: Farm Bill Biologist, Pheasants Forever.
  • Jennifer Smith - M.S. 2018 - Context matters for black bears: evaluating spatially-explicit density estimators and trade-offs in resource selection. Current position: Forests and Climate Coordinator and Communications Specialist, John Muir Institute of the Environment, University of California, Davis.
  • Jodi Kreuser - M.S. 2013 - Climate change, range shifts, and differential guild responses of Michigan breeding birds.  63 pp.  Current position: Registered Nurse, Eau Claire, WI. 

Undergraduate Research Assistants
  • Garrett Knowlton - B.S. 2020 - Assessing patterns in reporting of white-tailed deer records to the Boone and Crockett Club.
  • Hunter Stanke - B.S. 2019 - Connecting the dots: a landscape approach for Michigan CWD. Current position: Ph.D. student, University of Washington. 
  • Steven Gurney - B.S. 2018 - Behavioral ecology of black bears in the Upper Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Current position: M.S. Student, Michigan State University. 
  • Sydney Manning - B.S. 2017 - Developing realistic wild turkey management models: effects of observation uncertainty and regulation cycle. Current position: M.S. student, North Texas Health Science Center. 
  • Kali Rush - B.S. 2016 - Assessing habitat-specific detection probabilities for white-tailed deer. Current position: Regional Biologist, Ducks Unlimited. 


Students Advised by William Porter at State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry