Students

Graduate Student Executive Committee

• President: Paige Kleindl
  

  Paige Kleindl (she/her) is a 4th year PhD candidate at FIU working with Dr. Evelyn Gaiser in the Periphyton Research Lab. Paige is examining the interactions between periphyton mats and macrophytes along the freshwater and phosphorus gradients in the Greater Everglades. She is using past FCE-LTER research to tease apart macrophyte-periphyton interactions, is conducting an observational study at FCE long-term monitoring sites, and an enrichment experiment at the new FCE Experimental sites. Paige’s interest in being the FCE student group president is rooted in her passion for creating a welcoming, inclusive, and accessible community of Everglades-related researchers and students that promotes the collaborative development of ideas, science communication, and the exploration and care for the Everglades. She is excited to collaborate with the rest of the Executive Committee to plan and lead a variety of student-led workshops, science-focused field excursions, and community outreach.

• Vice President: James Sturges
  

  James is a second year PhD student in the Coastal Fisheries Research Lab advised by Dr. Jennifer Rehage. James’ dissertation work broadly focuses on aquatic food web dynamics on an ecosystem scale. He is interested in niche partitioning, multichannel energy pathway coupling in food webs, and ecosystem trajectories under shifting climatic conditions. Prior to moving to Florida James completed his B.S. degree at the University of Southern California and his M.S. at California State Polytechnique University, Pomona where he used stereo-video cameras to study fine-scale fish habitat use patterns on artificial reefs. James is passionate about promoting cross-site synthesis with other working groups and LTER sites, and hopes to promote better data management by making analytic resources available to students in the LTER network.

• Outreach Coordinator – BBC Representative: Gina Badlowski
  

  Gina (she/her) is a 3rd year PhD student in the Seascape Ecology Lab, advised by Dr. Rolando Santos. Gina's dissertation broadly focuses on seascape ecology and biodiversity-ecosystem function within Biscayne Bay and the Florida Keys. She is interested in the drivers of spatio-temporal patterns of nektonic communities across submerged aquatic vegetation seascapes and how changes in these two components may alter ecosystem functions. Gina is originally from New Jersey, where she completed her B.S. in Marine and Environmental Biology and Policy with a minor in GIS (she loves to make maps!). She continued and earned her M.S. in Biological Sciences, where her thesis focused on the impacts of vessel noise on fish hearing. As Outreach Coordinator – BBC Representative, Gina hopes to get the FCE student group more involved in outreach events as well as bring BBC FCE students closer together to foster a greater sense of community with MMC students and the greater FCE group.

• Treasurer: Carlos Pulido
   

• Secretary: Rosario Vidales
  

  Rosario Vidales (she/her) is a PhD candidate in the South Florida Terrestrial Ecosystems lab, advised by Dr. Michael Ross. Her research focuses on plant functional trait variation in mangrove communities of the Biscayne Bay Coastal Wetlands and in the southern Everglades with the goals of monitoring mangrove condition and determining the role of functional variability in these areas of low biodiversity. As secretary, Rosario hopes to keep all students informed of upcoming events and opportunities, maintain record of key events, and help promote student achievements.

• Faculty Advisor: Dr. John Kominoski
  

  Dr. Kominoski is the lead principal investigator of the FCE LTER program and the faculty advisor for FCE LTER Graduate Student Group. He has been mentoring FCE LTER graduate students since joining the FCE LTER program in 2012.