Principal Investigators
Travis Gallo, Assistant Professor
Google Scholar | Research Gate | CV | GitHub
Travis Gallo is an Assistant Professor in Urban Ecology and Conservation and is the lab PI. Travis works to understand how urban environments shape species distributions, populations, communities, and behaviors. The goal of his research is to provide evidence-based solutions that simultaneously conserve biological diversity and improve the lives of urban residents.
Graduate Students
Adam Pekor, Ph.D. Student
I am a graduate student in Environmental Science and Technology with a background in law. My research focuses on human-wildlife coexistence and lion population connectivity in northern Tanzania. Working with a local conservation organization called KopeLion, I helped develop a conservation incentive payment program to mitigate human-lion conflict in a key protected area. I am now studying the impacts of this program and lion population connectivity across the region to help understand the most effective tools for engaging communities, facilitating connectivity, and promoting coexistence in shared landscapes.
Colleen O’Donnell, Ph.D. Student
I am a graduate student with the Environmental Science and Technology Department at the University of Maryland. My background is in wildlife conservation, community-based climate adaptation, combating wildlife crime, sustainable and wildlife-friendly livelihoods, and habitat restoration. I have worked on species and with communities in African forests, mountains, wetlands, and savannas and in high-mountain peatlands of the Himalayas and Andes. Through my PhD and beyond, I hope to contribute to addressing what I see as one of Earth’s most pressing existential threats—biodiversity loss. I am particularly interested in restoring ecosystems through reintroductions of keystone species, especially carnivores, and reducing human-wildlife conflict. I earned a bachelors in biology from the University of Notre Dame and a Masters in sustainable development from the University of London SOAS.
Lavendar Harris, M.S. Student
I am a graduate student in Environmental Science and Technology at the University of Maryland. I received my bachelor’s degree in Fisheries and Wildlife from the University of Georgia and worked as a wildlife biologist researching and monitoring furbearers, turkeys, and urban wildlife for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. As a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, I will be studying interspecific interactions and space use between foxes and coyotes across Washington, DC.
Undergraduate Students
Ahmed Elsamani, Research Assistant
I am an undergraduate student in the University of Maryland’s Public Health Science program, pursuing a career in the medical field. My research focuses on urban wildlife and human interactions within ecosystems in the DC metro area. Through this work, I will study interactions and space use among deer, foxes, and coyotes across Maryland and Washington, D.C. I hope this research will deepen understanding of about human-wildlife interactions and help minimize zoonotic disease risk.
Lab Alumni
Postdoctoral Scholars
Zehidul Hussain (2024-2026). Currently a postdoc at Université de Sherbrooke
Gabby Palomo (2022-2024). Currently faculty at Universidad del Valle de Guatemala
Graduate Students:
Matthew Payne - M.S. (2023-2026). Currently at the University of Maryland
Dan Herrera - Ph.D. (2020-2024). Currently at Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute
Merri Collins - Ph.D. (2020-2024). Currently at Appalachian Headwaters
Alexia Yau - M.S. (2021-2024). Currently at USFWS
Krista Shires - Ph.D. (2020-2023). Currently at George Mason University
Hannah Wood - M.S. (2021-2023). Currently at Children’s Science Center, Fairfax
Kay Pontarelli - M.S. (2021-2023). Currently at U.S. Army Aberdeen Proving Ground
Angela Gaal - M.S. (2019-2021). Currently at Lord Green Strategies
Kate Ritzel - M.S. (2019-2021). Currently at U.S.G.S.
Nick Moreno - Ph.D. student on rotation (2020)
Undergraduate Students:
Lara Abedin - Undergraduate Research Assistant (2022-2024)
Faith Kruger - Undergraduate Research Assistant (2020-2022)
Tristan Silva-Montoya - Undergraduate Research Assistant (2020-2022)
Alix Upchurch - Undergraduate Research Assistant (2022)
Roberto Aguilar-Rojas - Undergraduate Research Assistant (2021)
Khanh Nguyen - Undergraduate Research Assistant (2020)
Melissa Irahet - Undergraduate Research Assistant (2020)
Daniel Marzluff - Undergraduate Research Assistant (2020)