David S. McLeod
Squirrels, Dukes, and Jayhawks: Gone but not forgotten.
Dr. Sara Schoen
2015–2017, 2018-2020
Sara began in the lab in 2015 as an undergraduate interested in the statistical analysis of morphometric data. She returned to JMU as a M.S.student in Biology. Her thesis research investigated the utilization of statistical analysis on morphological data. Subsequently, Sara completed a PhD at Florida International University.
Alex Shafer
2015–2020
Alex Shafer majored in Biology and Secondary Education at JMU and got her first taste of field work in Brunei in 2016. She was a co-leader of the JMU Herpetology Outreach Program that brought amphibian and reptile education to more than 20,000 people in 3 years! Following graduation, she taught secondary level science (lucky students!) and is now pursuing her PhD in the lab of Cameron Siler at the University of Oklahoma.
David Weisenbeck
2017–2020
David began as a high school student conducting local herpetofaunal surveys near his home in Virginia. At JMU he was an active member of the lab and a leader on a variety of projects. David published several peer-reviewed articles while at JMU and was a Barry Goldwater Scholarship awardee.
David is completing his PhD at the University of Kentucky.
Kate Williams
2019–2020
Kate majored in biology at JMU and got her first taste of international field work in Malaysian Borneo (Sarawak) in 2019 .
She currently works for the Department of Agriculture in Virgina
Emma Nelson
2019–2020
Emma started the first day of herpetology class in 2019 saying "I want to be a herpetologist". After unsuccessful attempts to discourage this path to poverty, Emma joined the lab and has become our DNA barcoding expert. In addition to meticulously processing our DNA samples, she worked on morphometrics and gained as much experience as possible before heading to graduate school.
Paige Carrington
2018–2020
Paige began working with amphibians and reptiles during a summer course in 2018 where she was barcoding tadpole DNA to facilitate species identifications. In 2019, Paige travelled to Malaysian Borneo for her first adventure in tropical herpetology.
Paige is currently working on Master's in Social Work at Cleveland State University
Grace Dimond
2015–2017
Grace Dimond was a Nursing major at JMU. Grace worked as a Collections Assistant in JMU's natural history collection.
Althea Neighbors
2015-2018
Althea Neighbors was a biology major with a concentration in ecology and environmental science at James Madison University. Althea worked with a graduate student, Sarah McGrath, on a project testing the success of a novel surveying technique for hylid frogs.
Lauren Roberts
2015–2017
Lauren was a Geology major at JMU with a minor in Biology. In the McLeod lab she worked on identifying fossil amphibians and reptiles. She spent a summer in the Blackburn lab at the Univ. of Florida working on amphibian morphology
Dr. Sarah McGrath
2015–2018
Sarah was a M.S.student in Biology at JMU whose thesis research investigated microbial transmission in Southeast Asian foam nest breeding tree frogs. The aim of her research was to investigate how organisms obtain their microbiome and which influences should be a focus for amphibian conservation.
Sarah earned her PhD at the University of Florida.
Lauren O'Neill
2017 - 2018
Lauren O'Neil was a pre-med biology major with a minor in studio art at James Madison University. Lauren’s goal is to get a PhD in both herpetology and marine biology. Lauren worked as Dr. McLeod's student assistant.
Dr. Tyler DeScenza
2017 - 2018
Tyler DeScenza was a biotechnology major at JMU. Tyler worked with tubercal analysis, trying to determine how to differentiate frogs species based on the variances on tubercal expression on their hind legs. He earned his PhD in biotechnology at the Florida Institute of Technology on In Situ Resource Utilization for Space Crop Production
Emily Whitacre
2017
Emily Whitacre was a psychology major with a minor in criminal justice at JMU. Emily is pursuing a master's degree in School Counseling. Emily worked as a Collections Assistant in JMU's Natural History Collection.
Frank Gebhard
2015–2019
Frank Gebhard was a Biology major at JMU. With a life long interst in herpetology and herpetoculture, Frank conducted a study of the effect of diet on growth rate in crested geckos.
Frank is an avid naturalist and spokespokeman for the biodiversity of Appalachia and has co-authored a book on the salamanders of West Virginia.
Hope Kircher
2018 - 2019
Hope majored in Kinesiology at JMU with a minor in Pre-Physical Therapy and Honors Interdisciplinary Studies. She's had a love for frogs since fourth grade but finally had a chance to work more with amphibians when she studied abroad in Brunei with Dr. McLeod in the summer of 2017.
Anna Golden
2018- 2019
Anna came to JMU to complete her BS in Biology in 2018. Her first semester she took herpetology and quickly joined us in outreach programs and ultimately became an active member of the lab studying the foot morphology of Limnonectes using micro CT data. Anna travelled to Malaysian Borneo in 2019 for her first taste of field work in the tropics.
Heather Maher
(2014–2017)
Heather worked on geometric morphometric analyses of head shapes in the Limnonectes kuhlii complex. She spent July 2015 in the lab of Anchalee Aowphol at Kasetsart University in Thailand as a herpetology research assistant, traveled to Brunei in 2016 and graduated in 2017.
Heather is pursuing her DVM and will be an excellent Veterinarian!
Dr. Noah Greenman
2014–2016
Noah Greenman worked on using the AMIRA modeling program to segment and map out various morphological structures of both tadpoles and frogs.
Noah earned a PhD in bioinformatics at the University of Central Florida.
Rachel Butts (2014–2015)
Rachel double majored in Biology and Psychology at JMU. Her passion is animal behavior. Her work in the lab involved quantifying tubercles for various frog specimens.
Makenna Gingras
(2014–2016)
Makenna worked as the osteological prepator and on a review paper focusing on frog tubercles.
Jenna Salter
2015–2017
Jenna Salter was a Biology Major at JMU. She plans on pursuing a career in Pharmacology and eventually attaining a Doctor of Pharmacy Degree after graduating from JMU. Jenna worked on prototyping a novel method of remotely studying box turtle ecology.
Madison Azzara
2015–2017
Madison worked for Sea to Shore Alliance, Inc., a conservation nonprofit focused on the preservation of coastal environments and their endangered species. She worked with Dr. McLeod in developing a set of programs for elementary, middle and high school students about local herpetology biodiversity and conservation.
Emily Maltman
2015–2017
Emily Maltman was a Biology major concentrating in Ecology and Environmental Biology at JMU. She worked on species descriptions and Limnonectes morphology in Dr. McLeod's research lab. In 2015 she studied abroad in Clonbur, Ireland, focusing on Geology and Environmental Science.
Dr. Ryan Hilton
2015–2017
Ryan Hilton was a Pre-Med Biotechnology major at JMU. Ryan worked to quantify and analyze dermal structures on frogs using 3-D imaging.
Ryan earned an MD from Wake Forest.
Joshua Mata
2015–2017
Josh was a Biology major at JMU. He worked as a collections assistant in the natural history collection at JMU. After graduation he worked at the National Museum of Natural History and now works as a collections manager at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago
Jennifer Mitchell
(2015)
Jennifer was a chemistry major and is headed to a career in Pharmacy. She worked with the Specify database software and helped organize the specimen collection here at JMU.
Jacqueline Sullivan
(2012–2014)
Jacque worked on a project examining more of the morphological and systematic diversity in the Limnonectes kuhlii complex from Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos. Jacque was the recipient of a 2013 KU Undergraduate Research Award and spent the summer of 2014 in the lab of Anchalee Aowphol at Kasetsart University in Bangkok, Thailand.
Dr. Walter Cook
(2012–2014)
Walter, a pre-dental student, experimented with ways to quantify differences in characters that are often treated subjectively in traditional morphological studies. He used surface tomography and computer learning algorithms to evaluate differences in dermal tuberculation. Walter received an Undergraduate Research Award from KU in 2013.
Walter earned a DD degree after completing undergraduate studies at KU.