Team | ECOSS - The Center for Ecosystem Science and Society

Camille Butkus

ecos — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 16:22:31 +0000

Camille is interested in understanding the biogeochemical processes responsible for the movement and transformation of nutrients in plants, soil, and water. She supports lab work in the Schuur, Mack, and Walker labs.

Hillary Cooper

ecos — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 16:19:40 +0000

Prior to working in ECOSS, Hillary focused on the ecological and evolutionary responses of riparian trees to climate change in the Southwest as a PhD student and later post-doc here at NAU. As a researcher in the Mack/Walker lab, she will be exploring the interplay of wildfire and soil carbon in boreal forests, while concurrently keeping the lab stocked with gloves and ethanol.

Ella Santana-Propper

ecos — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 16:16:46 +0000

Ella has a passion for science communication and accessibility and enjoyed sharing her deep curiosity about all scales of life working as a science teacher. As a scientist, the running theme of her research background has been understanding the distribution, diversity, and function of organisms. More recently she is interested in applying this background toward restoring damaged landscapes. Ella’s current research projects focus on methods for scaling up moss production in aid of biological soil crust (biocrust) restoration efforts. She is also interested in gaining a better understanding of the role of biocrusts in dryland ecosystem dynamics and is thrilled to be supporting DIRT lab projects working toward this goal.

Bella Skotnick

ecos — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 16:09:57 +0000

Bella works at ECOSS as a Student Administrative Assistant. She is a Bio-Medical Science Major here at NAU and will graduate in the Spring of 2026. After graduation Bella plans to attend a Physician Assistant program with hopes of becoming a surgical PA.

Zacharaih Madsen

ecos — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 15:58:43 +0000

Zach worked at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Crested Butte, CO, during his senior year as an undergraduate and continued there for another year after graduation. He utilized drones and GIS to create remote sensing imagery, studying the effects of microtopography on plant phenotypic plasticity. Following this, he pursued a Master’s in Conservation Biology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, where he researched alpine plant communities. His work focused on plant survival strategies across gradients of snow and solar exposure, establishing connections between terrain, snow, shrubs, and herb cover/richness. He developed a comprehensive causal network to illustrate both direct and indirect effects. After earning his degree, Zach joined the ECOSS team in the Mack/Walker lab as a research associate and lab manager. In this role, he oversees lab procedures, supports undergraduate and graduate students with their academic and professional projects, and coordinates BNZ community and management meetings. He also assists with data processing and management. Additionally, Zach is preparing to take over future drone projects, contributing to the production of high-quality maps for further spatial analysis.

Sierra Dawn Gugel

ecos — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 15:53:59 +0000

Sierra is a postdoc with the Drylands & Intermountain Restoration Team (DIRT Lab). Her primary role is helping to coordinate CrustNet (https://crustnet.org/index.html), a globally distributed network of biological soil crust research sites. Sierra is launching CrustNet in North America by installing 10 sites by the end of 2025. Sierra is also helping to develop training materials for CrustNet collaborators and managing the molecular work and analyses for the project. Sierra’s research background is in soil microbial ecology and dryland restoration. She earned a PhD with Dr. Nichole Barger at the University of Colorado, working on biological soil crust restoration on the Colorado Plateau. Sierra earned a master’s degree with Dr. Mark Teece at SUNY-ESF working on microbialite lipidomics. Sierra has a dual bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and Earth Systems Science from the University of Wyoming. For more information, visit https://sierrajech.weebly.com/.

Stephanie Mayer

ecos — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 20:04:16 +0000

Formerly an Assistant Director for ECOSS, Stephanie currently works for the Center for Community Health and Engaged Research (CHER).

Cara Fields

ecos — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 16:45:42 +0000

Cara is interested in carbon cycling and carbon sequestration in trees, especially really old trees. She graduated from Bowdoin College with a degree in biology and a concentration in ecology, evolution, and marine biology. At Bowdoin, she researched the effects of temperature and drought stress on ponderosa pine physiology. In her doctoral research, she will be focusing on nonstructural carbon and radiocarbon in tree rings to explore how trees store and allocate carbon.

Bjorn Larson

ecos — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 16:44:46 +0000

Bjorn Larson has been working in arctic Alaska for the past three summers, and he is excited to continue studying such a fascinating landscape as it goes through rapid changes. He is working to understand how changing climate and disturbance regimes are changing plant communities.

Abby Hay

ecos — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 16:43:06 +0000

Abby completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Dayton where she studied woody invasive plants. She then completed her Masters degree in biology at Miami University (OH) studying the effects of deer and invasive plants on native seedlings. She also worked in environmental consulting and as a Visiting Instructor at MU’s regional campuses before coming to NAU, where she plans to obtain her PhD. She plans to study wildfire dynamics and permafrost in Alaska.