GRADUATE STUDENTS
Dr. Shefali LemaireShefali Lemaire is a Ph.D. Student in Integrative Biology who joined the lab in 2022. She earned her D.V.M. from St. George's University School of Veterinary Medicine in 2012, and has been practicing as a small animal emergency veterinarian ever since. Her Ph.D. project is focused on clinical disease progression, treatment, and prevention of fibropapillomatosis in green sea turtles.
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Alice Frye
Alice Frye is a Ph.D. Student in Integrative Biology: Marine Science and Oceanography at FAU Harbor Branch who joined the lab in 2022. Alice is studying the impacts of increased human development on cetacean health by examining how parasite diversity has changed over time in bottlenose dolphins found in the Indian River Lagoon and how this relates to increased human development.
Alice earned her B.S. in Marine Biology from Eckerd College in 2014. She then went on to earn her Master of Professional Science in Marine Conservation/Marine Mammal Science from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Sciences in December of 2019. Her thesis was a retrospective analysis focused on the impacts of climate change on the reproductive success of bottlenose dolphins in managed care. |
Before transferring to the University of Miami in 2018, she spent a year on O’ahu where she interned at the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center with the unmanned aircraft systems (drone) project which uses drones for photo ID and examining body condition scores of cetaceans. Her interests include biology, physiology, and behavior of cetaceans; human impacts on cetaceans; climate change impacts on the biology, physiology, and behavior of cetaceans; and using new research techniques or technology to further conservation efforts. In her free time, she enjoys spending time at the beach, exploring, and spending time with her cat Pepper. She also enjoys being active including hiking, swimming, scuba diving, snorkeling, and paddleboarding.
Derek Aoki
Derek Aoki is a PhD student in Integrative Biology at FAU Harbor Branch. Before joining the Page-Karjian Lab in 2020, he received duel B.A.’s in Environmental Science and Geography from the University of Denver in 2012. During his final year in Denver, his interests shifted from geography to marine biology, so after graduating, he worked for ecological conservation nonprofits in Ecuador, Costa Rica, and South Africa. Soon after, he moved to Breisgau, Germany and completed a Master of Science in Environmental Science from the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg in 2017. His Master's thesis focused on the effects artificial light has on the nesting distribution and hatchling orientation of loggerhead turtles in Cape Verde, Africa. His work with sea turtles started in 2013 when he received an internship with Turtle Foundation, a nonprofit organization on Boavista, Cape Verde. Derek returned for the next three summers, teaching interns and volunteers how to tag and collect data from nesting loggerheads as well as managing the nesting database for three field sites. He also had brief stops at a sea turtle rehabilitation center in Athens, Greece and a tagging field project in Pacuare, Costa Rica. Once his German visa expired, he moved back to the USA and joined the Loggerhead Marinelife Center as a Seasonal Nesting Technician in 2018.
Brooke Davis
Brooke Davis is a Master's student in the Marine Science & Oceanography program and also works full time with the Marine Mammal Stranding and Population Assessment (MMSPA) team at FAU HBOI. With the MMSPA team, she is conducting photo ID research on bottlenose dolphins in the Indian River Lagoon and is a NOAA first responder for stranded marine mammals. Dr. Page-Karjian is the lead veterinarian for the MMSPA team, and Brooke enjoys working with the Page-Karjian Lab for necropsies and live animal rescues. Brooke has a B.S. in Marine Science (Biology track) with a minor in Environmental Studies from Eckerd College. As an undergraduate student, she researched social organization and group dynamics of bottlenose dolphins in Boca Ciega Bay, FL. As a NOAA Hollings Scholar, she researched population metrics of humpback whales in Juneau, Alaska. Brooke has also worked in northern California with marine mammal strandings and in Maine with humpback and fin whale photo ID. Ultimately, she found herself back in Florida with bottlenose dolphins where it all began.
Nicole Pegg
Nicole Pegg is a Master’s student in the Marine Science & Oceanography program at FAU HBOI. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Marine Science from Eckerd College in 2019. Throughout her time as an undergraduate student, she volunteered at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Marine Mammal Pathobiology Laboratory where she first began assisting with marine mammal necropsies and rescues. She also was a NOAA Hollings Scholarship recipient and interned with the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) Passive Acoustic group in Woods Hole, Massachusetts during the summer of 2018 researching humpback whale acoustic presence in George’s Bank and the Gulf of Maine. After graduating, she returned to the NOAA NEFSC Passive Acoustic group where her research focused on baleen whale acoustics in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean. Along with currently being a Master’s student, she is also a research and vet assistant with the FAU HBOI Marine Mammal Stranding and Population Assessment team where she works full-time conducting cetacean photo identification research and responding to cetacean strandings.
Tracy Kowalczyk
Tracy Kowalczyk joined Florida Atlantic University in 2022 working full time as a marine mammal stranding and population assessment assistant. She conducts photo ID research on bottlenose dolphins in the Indian River Lagoon and responses to cetacean strandings from Sabastian to Jupiter FL. Along with working full time, she decided to continue her education and join the Marine Science & Oceanography master’s program under Dr. Annie Page-Karjian. Before joining FAU, she completed her Bachelor of Science at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in 2014 where she majored in Marine Biology with a minor in Psychology. While living in North Carolina she was part of the UNCW marine mammal stranding program where she participated in many necropsies and research projects. After completing her degree, she worked for Clearwater Marine Aquarium as part of their education and research team conducting fish population studies and photo ID research of bottlenose dolphins in the Clearwater Bay area. This is where her love for photo ID research was founded. She has interned at Dolphin plus bayside in Key Largo Florida, Dolphin Encounters in Nassau Bahamas, and has previously worked as an endangered species observer in North Carolina and Florida. In her free time, she loves being active outdoors, going to the beach, and spending time with her dogs.
Past Lab Members
Hunter Brown
Hunter Brown joined the Page lab as a Master's student in FAU's Marine Science and Oceanography program in 2020. He completed his undergraduate education at Stetson University where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Aquatic and Marine Biology and a minor in Environmental Studies. During his time in the lab as a Master's student, he assisted in necropsies, marine mammal photo ID surveys, outreach events, and many other collaborative projects including both sea turtles and marine mammals. After graduating in 2023, he continued working with Dr. Page at HBOI as her current Research Coordinator.
Dr. Ashley Morgan
Dr. Ashley Morgan joined the lab as a PhD student in Integrative Biology at FAU's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute. She studied the health impacts of plastics on fish from the snapper-grouper complex on patch reef ecosystems in the Florida Keys. Ashley is currently working as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate with Dr. Deb Miller and the One Health Initiative at the University of Tennessee. She is splitting her time between teaching wildlife health courses to undergraduates, graduates, and veterinary students, conducting research investigating various environmental contaminants and their impacts on aquatic ecosystems, and working with the One Health Initiative on several collaborative projects addressing health and food sovereignty in rural Appalachian communities and innovative and sustainable system solutions at the food-water-energy nexus. She continues to add her veterinary expertise and experience in aquatic animal health to the diverse and interdisciplinary teams she finds herself a part of. Outside of work, she has been enjoying time in the mountains with her husband, two dogs, and 8-month-old son, Sawyer.
Marisa Pico
Marisa Pico joined the Page-Karjian lab as a Master's student in the FAU Marine Science & Oceanography Program. She completed her undergraduate education at the University of Florida where she graduated with a Bachelor in Science in Marine Science. During her time at HBOI, she assisted in various sea turtle related research projects at the University of Florida, Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, and Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute. In addition, she completed an internship in the Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Hospital at Loggerhead Marinelife Center in fall 2018. Marisa earned her Master's degree and is now a student at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, Class of 2025, where she plans to specialize in aquatic animal medicine.
Skyler Klingshirn
Skyler Klingshirn joined the Page-Karjian lab as a Master's student in the FAU Marine Science & Oceanography Program. She graduated from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio in 2018 with a B.S. in Environmental Science and minors in Marine Science and Biology. During her time as an undergraduate, she spent a semester at the Duke University Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, North Carolina where she first got her start with sea turtles through a course about the biology and conservation of sea turtles. Through this course, she was able to travel to Puerto Rico and St. Croix, USVI to work with green sea turtles and leatherbacks. Following her semester at the Duke Marine Lab, she completed a summer research internship in the Page-Karjian Lab at FAU-HBOI, using molecular diagnostics to analyze fibropapillomatosis in loggerhead and green sea turtles. She also completed a sea turtle internship with Edisto Beach State Park in South Carolina where she was responsible for monitoring loggerhead sea turtle nesting and running educational programs. After receiving her undergraduate degree, Skyler completed an AmeriCorps service term where she assisted an ongoing loggerhead sea turtle monitoring program through data collection and research on Jekyll Island, Georgia. After earning her Master's degree, Skyler now works with the St. Johns River Water Management District in Satellite Beach, FL as an Environmental Scientist.
Catherine Lo
Catherine joined the Page-Karjian Lab in 2017 as a Master's student in the FAU Marine Science & Oceanography Program. Before joining the lab, she earned her B.S. in Biology from Oregon State University, where she also did an internship with the Geospatial Ecology of Marine Megafauna Laboratory. After her undergraduate degree, she completed a research internship at The Marine Mammal Center in California. Her thesis focused on relating endocrine-disrupting contaminants to histopathological findings in stranded dolphins and whales. During her time at HBOI, she also volunteered for the Brevard Zoo Sea Turtle Healing Center, and assisted the HBOI team with responding to stranded sea turtles and marine mammals. Catherine earned her Master's degree in Spring 2019, and now works as a Research Assistant with the SeaDoc Society.