Devon is an evolutionary biologist with a background in museum ornithology. His passion for interacting with and understanding biodiversity led him to a PhD program at the University of Kansas, where he defended his dissertation entitled “How and Why Genomes Lie: Case Studies in Birds of the Pacific Islands” with honors in 2024. His previous work focused on understanding how genetic diversity is distributed across the globe in a variety of bird lineages, with a special focus on the evolutionary mechanisms generating discordance across the genome.
Now as a La Kretz postdoctoral fellow in the Aguillon Lab, Devon is focused on understanding the genetics of potentially imperiled populations of scrub-jays (genus Aphelocoma) in California. Specifically, Devon has designed a project to investigate the evolutionary origin of a single mountain endemic subspecies (Aphelocoma californica cana) found in the California desert, east of Joshua Tree National Park. Additionally, he plans to use genomic data to better understand the evolutionary trajectory and long-term viability of the single-island endemic Island Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma insularis), the only island endemic bird species native to the lower 48 states.
Effective conservation is often hindered by the disconnect between the small snapshots of data that ecologists and conservationists feasibly collect, and the big-picture conclusions about ecosystem health demanded by policymakers, scientists, and society. As a quantitative ecologist, my research aims to bridge this gap by developing rigorous theory, devising practical monitoring metrics, and validating these approaches with empirical data. For example, I’ve developed methods to predict ecosystem stability from limited subsamples of their interactions, and to assess the long-term survival of species across fragmented landscapes using limited survey data. Ultimately, my work seeks to provide reliable, accessible tools that empower both researchers and decision-makers to make informed choices about conservation prioritization and habitat restoration..
Joey’s research focuses on the impacts of anthropogenic stressors on bat community composition in urban areas across California. Specifically, using unmanned aerial vehicles with onboard sensors and acoustic microphones, Joey will survey bat populations across urban Los Angeles to understand 1) how light and sound pollution vary with altitude, 2) how bat communities respond to these 3-dimensional pollution gradients in real time, and 3) if functional traits of individual bat species explain their relationship to light and sound pollution at different altitudinal strata.
Joey received his Ph.D. in 2024 from the UCLA Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department, where he worked with statewide resource managers on a variety of conservation genomics projects. These included a project aimed at evaluating the impact of roadways in Los Angeles to California quail (Callipepla californica) gene flow and rangewide landscape genomics of the Yuma myotis bat (Myotis yumanensis). As a La Kretz Postdoctoral Fellow, Joey will continue to work with local agencies, including the city of Los Angeles, to translate his science into meaningful conservation actions and policy.
Angela Picco is the Threatened and Endangered Species Lead for the Pacific Southwest Region (California, Nevada, and the Klamath Basin of Oregon) of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). In her current role, Angela manages a team of supervisors implementing the Endangered Species Act including listing, recovery, habitat conservation planning, and consultations. Angela co-founded the Women Working in Wildlife group and the Region 8 Mentoring Program for USFWS, and she is an active mentor and coach within the agency. Angela works out of the Regional Office in Sacramento, California, and she has worked for the USFWS for 16 years. She has a B.S. in Evolution and Ecology from the University of California, Davis, and a Ph.D. from the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University where her research focused on applied conservation biology.
I am the Research Manager for U.S. Geological Survey’s Western Ecological Research Center overseeing and supporting our principal investigators as they help answer critical questions for conservation managers and regulators throughout California, Nevada, and the Pacific islands in the areas of landscape ecology, genetics, and species management. Before this, I worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as an environmental contaminant specialist managing the agency’s Spill Response and Natural Resource Damage Assessment & Restoration (NRDAR) Program in California and Nevada assessing environmental injuries from oil spills, and successfully securing funding from polluters to restore damage to fish and wildlife from incidents such as such as the Cosco Busan, Refugio Beach, and Huntington Beach Pipeline P00547 spills. I have served on past advisory boards for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the UC Davis Oiled Wildlife Care Network where I brought my conservation management experience and perspectives into the mix of understanding and evaluating complex conservation needs in a sea of competing uses and values.
Dafeng is broadly interested in understanding the response of terrestrial ecosystems to changing climate and intensified human activities from the perspective of ecosystem structure and carbon. She finished her PhD in Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology at Brown University in 2024. At UCLA’s IoES, she will investigate the response of coastal forests by mapping their carbon stocks and changes globally.
I am a population geneticist whose research focuses on developing and implementing computational approaches to understand the causes and consequences of genetic variation in natural populations in a wide array of species. While my research group is entirely computational, we focus on addressing biological questions using large-scale genomic data. We develop our own new statistical approaches when existing tools are not well suited for the particular questions or data. Much of our recent work focuses on building models of evolutionary processes to better understand deleterious genetic variation in a variety of species and populations. We are especially interested in how deleterious mutations influence fitness in small populations of conservation concern, including those in California, like the Channel Island fox.
Michael is currently a second year Masters in Public Policy student at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs. His policy interests lie in environmental justice and public health. Michael is also a graduate research fellow with the UCLA Luskin Center of Innovation. Michael holds a Bachelor’s in Environmental Studies, with a focus in Law and Policy and a Minor in Sustainable Engineering from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Along with his studies, Michael is also the Director of Policy and Research at Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles where he also leads their Clean Water Program which focuses on drinking water issues in California communities. Aside from water policy, Michael has also worked on policy topics such as hazardous waste, safer consumer products, California energy production, microplastics, pesticides, and nuclear abolishment.
