​​​​​​​​​  Tree: Tropical Research in Ecology & Ethology

     Dr. Joachim has taught part time for 13 years University of New Mexico in the Department of Psychology.  Dr. Joachim's principle interests center around female competition over mates and nonhuman primate cognition. In New Mexico she studies the importance of behavioral enrichment on well-being in captive gorillas. Dr. Joachim is a co-founder and principle instructor for Tree Field Studies.

     Dr. Joachim's interest in nonhuman animals began as a child when she read Hugh Lofting and James Herriot. Dr. Joachim graduated from Swarthmore College with a degree in Biology. After graduation Dr. Joachim took data on captive gorillas at the Los Angeles Zoo. She later received a doctorate in comparative and evolutionary psychologist with a specialization in primate studies from The University of Arizona.

     Dr. Joachim has taught courses on primate behavior and ecology at a number of field sites in Costa Rica for the past 13 years.  She brings an interesting perspecitve to field work drawing on theory from psychology anthropology, and biology. Dr. Joachim currently resides in New Mexico with her husband Franz and dogs Lily Potter and Elsa.

Eric Hileman is in the Biological Sciences Department at Northern Illinois University. His doctoral work was focused on elucidating range-wide data gaps in Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake (Sistrurus catenatus catenatus) demography, phenology, and life history. As the Eastern Massasauga is a federal candidate species for listing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA), Eric’s research will provide important information that will inform ESA listing and the subsequent recovery plan and management for the species by providing 1) critically needed demographic estimates from a centrally located population and sensitivity analysis of these estimates to assess their relative importance to conservation efforts, 2) a predictive hibernation ingress/egress model to assist managers in minimizing mortality during ground-disturbing land management activities, and 3) a range-wide synthesis to evaluate latitudinal variation in life history traits.

     Eric’s master’s thesis research focused on the demography of the Wisconsin state threatened Butler’s Gartersnake (Thamnophis butleri). Prior to his graduate work, he was the Director of Conservation, Education, and Animal Welfare at the Racine Zoo (Racine, WI) where he was employed for 10 years.

     Eric has worked extensively in the Neotropics, conducting research and teaching field-based tropical herpetology courses in Nicaragua (2004), Costa Rica (2001, 2002, 2004 –2006, 2012–2015), and Association of Zoos and Aquariums led chytrid-related amphibian conservation efforts in El Valle, Panama (2006).

Population Ecologist and Herpetologist, Department of Biology Northern Illinois University

     Dr. Moskalik studies behavioral ecology and evolution. His model organisms have been spiders but he has also worked with crickets, a variety of reptiles and many other arachnids. Brian's research areas span a great deal of topics from physiology to population level change. He addresses how the environment may impact individual behaviors and physiology to determine how response variation can influence the populations.

     Currently Dr. Moskalik is  interested in interactions between intraguild arthropod predators and condition dependent characteristics that promote behavioral plasticity. Often times, behavioral strategies evolve to reduce encounters that may increase risk and competition. Sensory system exploitation, biological rhythms, and adaptive behavioral tactics may be employed to reduce these selective pressures.

     Diane Husic is Chair and Professor of the Department of Biological Sciences and a member of the faculty of the Environmental Studies and Sciences Program at Moravian College in Bethlehem Pennsylvania (USA).  She has taught courses ranging from environmental science for non majors to graduate level biochemistry courses. Perhaps most unusual are the courses on climate change (Climate Crises: Past, Present, and Future and Climate Negotiations on the International Stage) that she teaches with a music historian and her course entitled Redefining Prosperity: Moving towards a Culture of Sustainability.

     In 2005, through a National Science Foundation-funded project aimed at getting more undergraduates interested in plant science, she became engaged with undergraduate researchers at a highly contaminated Superfund site examining heavy metal uptake in early successional plants and studying the restoration of a functioning ecosystem at a once site devoid of vegetation. She conducts ecological assessments (inventories of plants, birds, butterflies and invasive species), especially along the Appalachian Mountain range in Pennsylvania, monitors habitat for impacts of a changing climate, and serves as the coordinator of the Eastern Pennsylvania Phenology Project, a project which was launched when she was selected as a 2010 Audubon TogetherGreen Fellow in Conservation Leadership.

     She is an author on over 50 publications and has contributed to a number of reports – including a 200 page ecological assessment of the restoration of a Superfund site, the 2011 PA Climate Change Adaptation report, and the Council on Undergraduate Research publication “Transformative Research at Predominantly Undergraduate Institutions”.

     In addition, Moravian College is a credentialed civil society observer for the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and she has attended the international climate conferences as an official delegate for the past five years.  Recently, she has also begun working with the Global Women’s’ Scholar Network on the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals at the United Nations and on examining the nexus between Environmental Policy and Human Rights.  She is also a member of the steering committee for both the National Geographic’s Geo-Educator initiative and the Rocky Mountain Science and Sustainability Network.

Chair and Professor of Biological Sciences, Department of Biological Science, Moravian College

   Dr. Master is a professor of Biological Sciences at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania. Terry teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in conservation, ecology, ornithology, and organismal biology. He has also taught ornithology courses in Costa Rica for a number of years; and as such he is a expert in tropical ornithology.

   Dr. Master has studied birds in Costa Rica for many years. His research in Costa Rica has centered on the foraging behavior Torrent Tyrannulet and the conservation of riparian songbirds. 

     His classes are designed to introduce you to the amazing variety of birds found in Costa Rica. The course will provide a detailed view of Neotropical ornithology within a framework of ecological and behavioral concepts that will be illustrated using tropical birds. 

Ornithologist, Department of Biological Sciences, East Stroudsburg University

     Dr. Erica McAlister is the Collections Manager and Senior Curator, for the Department of Entomology, Natural History Museum London. She is a visiting professor for University of Surrey Roehampton and has done consulting for the University of Bristol. Dr. McAlister has  extensive field experience having worked in the UK, Europe, as well as South and Central America. Her expertice extends to Costa Rica where she  collected specimens at The Estacion Biologica La Suerte for two years.  In addition to having impressive research and curation credentials, Erica is also a contributor to BBC 4 "The Living World".

     Thomas C. LaDuke is a North American herpetologist and tropical biologist who has taught field classes in Costa Rica for 17 years.  He earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from Michigan State University in 1981 and 1983, respectively, and a Ph.D. from the City University of New York in 1991. 

     Dr. LaDuke’s first experience in the tropics was on a ten week summer course in Costa Rica through the Organization for Tropical Studies.  He has been hooked on tropical biology ever since.  Currently employed as an Associate Professor at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania, he helped to found El Zota Biological Station in northeastern Costa Rica and has taught classes there almost every year since its inception in the year 2000.  Four of his own graduate students have conducted their master’s research at El Zota.  He is currently conducting research on Costa Rican lizards, snakes and frogs.

     Stacy Lindshield is a primatologist and Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at Iowa State University. Dr. Lindshield received her Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Iowa State University in 2014. Currently, she is the co-Principal Investigator of the Assirik chimpanzee research project at Niokolo-Koba National Park in Senegal, and a Director of the Monkey Bridge Project, Inc. She has research experience studying chimpanzees in Senegal, as well as spider monkeys, howler monkeys, and capuchin monkeys in Costa Rica.

     Dr. Lindshield’s current research is on the behavior and ecology of savanna chimpanzees at the Fongoli and Assirik research sites in Senegal. In addition, she assesses the significance of wildlife corridors for monkeys at the Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Costa Rica. Dr. Lindshield has spent over 39 months in Costa Rica and Senegal while studying the behavior of wild non-human primates and participated in nine primatology field schools, primarily at El Zota Biological Field Station in Costa Rica.  

     Our newest faculty member is Bob Literman. Bob is currently finishing his PhD at Iowa State University in the department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology. Bob received his B.Sc. in 2007 from SUNY Geneseo, where he first learned about temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD) after buying a pair of pet leopard geckos. Bob's PhD research now focuses on the evolution of sex determination and temperature-dependent gene regulation, using turtles as a model group.

    Bob's first experience in the tropics was a 3-week field course in tropical herpetology taught in Costa Rica during the summer of his Junior year of Undergraduate studies. Bob is committed to observation, humane collection, and characterization all of the diverse lifeforms the rainforest has to offer.  His tropical research interests include: (1) The impact of illegal harvesting and climate change on sea turtle egg development and population health, (2) the effect of above-ground nests on the sex determination of certain tropical turtles, and (3) continued characterization of the sex determining mechanisms for unstudied tropical lineages. 

     On top of his teaching responsibilities at Iowa State University, Bob is also an NSF GK-12 fellow. Bob has taught both lecture and lab courses with age ranges from 7th grade science to graduate level seminars. Bob has done research in multiple fields and in multiple locales. After getting his Undergraduate degree in New York, Bob spent three months in New Zealand studying the genes underlying sex determination in the threatened tuatara, Sphenodon punctatus. From there, Bob moved to Boston, MA for two years to work at Tufts University, where he studied how human teeth actually contain populations of stem cells which can theoretically be extracted and used to regrow human teeth. Bob was able to sync back up with his reptilian interests when he started his PhD at Iowa State University in 2009. Bob is currently in the lab of Dr. Nicole Valenzuela, studying the molecular biology of sex determination in turtles.