Education and Outreach

Teaching and Mentoring

Since 2001, I have facilitated educational programs about fungi, bioremediation, and ecological restoration in a variety of venues. I have served as a faculty mentor and supervisor for scores of undergraduate researchers, masters students, and Ph.D. students, including those from Hampshire College, Appalachian State University, Sonoma State University, Prescott College, Simon Fraser University, UC Berkeley, UC Riverside, and UC Irvine.

Check out this comic by Michelle Gilmore #NSF-funded, graphically communicating science about my work on airborne dust-associated microbial communities

Resident Scientist: NSF GK-12 Fellowship

In 2012-2013, I was a teaching fellow for NSF, working in Cesar E. Chavez High School, teaching Biology and Human Anatomy and Physiology to at-risk youth in Santa Ana, CA.

Artwork produced by my students at Cesar E. Chavez High School in Santa Ana, California.

Environmental Biology and Sustainability Education

I am a teaching professor at Chapman University in Orange, CA. At Chapman, I facilitate upper-division coursework for undergraduate students in biology. In addition to teaching General Ecology Lecture and Laboratory, I also am Lead Instructor for the Senior Capstone Course for Biological Science Majors. This course is designed and run according to the NSF sponsored CREATE method:

Consider
Read
Elucidate the hypothesis
Analyze and interpret the data, and
Think of the next Experiment

This class uses a guided analysis of a series of journal articles focused on a single line of research (Underground Currencies: Plant and microbial exchange) to highlight the evolution of this research topic over a long period of time. Students will break down information from each paper and reassemble it into individual experiments as well as critically interpret the data. At the end of the semester, each student writes their own mini NSF grant proposal.

Read about our research with Chapman Ecology undergraduate students at the Orange Homegrown Urban Educational Farm evaluating the role of microbial inoculants on plant performance and the effects of myceliated straw or myceliated wood chips – straw or wood chips that have been inoculated with a mushroom culture – in altering soil nutrient availability, as compared to soil mulched with plain straw or with wood chips, among other variables. This myceliated mulch also served as an effective biofilter, preventing erosion of farm topsoil and sediments into effluent.

Students get hands dirty at new community farm: Ecology class is first to work soil at Lemon Street site. https://blogs.chapman.edu/happenings/2016/10/18/students-hands-dirty-community-farm/

Service and Outreach

I have contributed to my profession by co-founding the Mycological Society of America’s Student Section and Diversity Community, and serving as a Committee Member on the Mycological Society’s Student Awards Committee. In addition, I am a scientific advisor for the nonprofit organization CoRenewal. Watch this animation produced by a 4th grade class at Peralta Elementary School in Oakland, California, led by Artist-in-Residence Trena Noval and teacher Kelly Rozario.

Student Leadership Institute for Climate Resilience

I represent the University of California Riverside at the University of California-wide Trainers’ Training on Student Leadership Institute for Climate Resilience. (SLICR). At UCR, I coordinated and facilitated the SLICR training in November 2019 for 38 undergraduates, graduate students, and student leaders. In collaboration with UCR Residential Life and the UCR Office of Sustainability, we are initiating a sustainability series, to certify students in climate resilience.

Linking art and science

Scenes from a comic by Yuki Muryama, illustrating how inhaling dust from the Salton Sea could have an impact on our lungs and respiratory health