Principal Investigator
Evan P. Tanner
Meadows Professor in Semiarid Land Ecology
Assistant Professor
Evan Tanner is currently an assistant professor at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry, Resource Management (2009) and a Master of Science degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Science (2012) from the University of Tennessee. His M.S. research focused on population ecology of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) on reclaimed surface coal mines in western Kentucky. He received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Natural Resource Ecology and Management from Oklahoma State University in 2015. His Ph.D. research focused on understanding how extreme weather events and future climate change influence population dynamics of northern bobwhite and scaled quail (Callipepla squamata) along the periphery of their distributions. From 2016-2019, he worked as a post-doctoral fellow for Oklahoma State University and was funded through grants received from the National Science Foundation and the United States Department of Agriculture. There, his research focused on modeling spatio-temporal dynamics of thermal conditions in human influenced landscapes and how these dynamics impact ecological patterns and processes across multiple scales. Furthermore, he assessed how human policies associated with the Conservation Reserve Program directly influenced populations of the lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) throughout the species’ distribution. Evan joined the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute in 2020 and has research interests related to thermal ecology, avian ecology, socio-ecological systems, and ecological niche modeling. His personal interests include birding, fishing, scuba diving, small game hunting, and hiking.
Current Graduate Students
Breanna Green
PhD Student
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Breanna grew up in a small town in the Pacific Northwest of Washington. While always maintaining a love of the outdoors, she initially pursued a Forensics degree before discovering her true passion for wildlife. She completed her Bachelor's in Biology with a Wildlife Ecology concentration at the University of Providence in Montana. After graduation, she spent a year with a wildlife health lab in Colorado and worked with a variety of mammals including elk, bighorn sheep, bobcats, and cougars.
She is thrilled to join Texas A&M University-Kingsville and Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute in pursuit of her Master’s. Her research will focus on the behavioral responses of White-tailed Deer driven by heat stress.
Levi Sweeten
MSc Student
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Levi grew up near Salt Lake City, Utah and spent time in the Wasatch and Uinta mountains where he fell in love with the outdoors. He completed a B.S. in Biology at Southern Utah University in 2020. There he researched waterfowl responses to observation using remote controlled aerial and aquatic drones and participated in other projects involving avian ecology and insect biodiversity. After graduation, he worked as a wildlife management intern at Salt Lake City International Airport where he gained experience trapping and banding raptors.
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At Texas A&M University - Kingsville, Levi is researching nesting ecology, resource selection, and stage-specific survival of scaled quail. Levi's hobbies include birding, fly fishing, insect collecting, and spending time with his wife and two children.
Kat Travis
MSc Student
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Kat originally grew up in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, and earned a B.S. in Natural Resource Ecology Managment and a B.A. in Political Science from Louisiana State University in 2018. As an undergraduate, she conducted research on estimating white-tailed deer reproduction rates with doe-to-fawn ratios on camera traps, and assisted in a variety of other projects including waterfowl and dove banding, feral hog monitoring, and invasive vegetation control. Following graduation, she had several technician jobs, including work with greater sage-grouse in Idaho, northern bobwhite and scaled quail in north Texas, and woodcock and waterfowl in southern Virginia. Her research at Texas A&M-Kingsville will focus on the movement ecology of chestnut-bellied scaled quail in the South Texas Plains.
Outside of work, Kat enjoys spending time outdoors hiking and birding, as well as art, writing, and reading nonfiction.
Ed Rhodes
PhD Student
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Ed Rhodes grew up in the small town of Jacksboro, TX, where in FFA he found a love for range plant identification and Range and Pasture Judging. His senior year of high school, he was on the national champion Range and Pasture team.
He went on to earn a B.S. in Rangeland Ecology and Management at Texas A&M – College Station. While at A&M, Ed was active in the Range Club, Soil and Water Conservation Society, the Corps of Cadets, and the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band. After graduating from A&M, Ed completed his M.S. in Rangeland Ecology and Management at Oregon State University, where he studied the effects of prescribed fire on cover and dietary resources of sage grouse habitat.
Ed has worked for Texas A&M AgriLife Research for 15 years and is currently a Research Specialist for the Texas Water Resources Institute. His research focus is on remote sensing of land use/land cover changes in the Ogallala Aquifer region, and how it all relates to groundwater use, rangeland fragmentation, and surface water quality.
Caleb McKinney
PhD Student
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Caleb grew up in small town in Oklahoma and earned a B.S. in Wildlife Ecology and Management from Oklahoma State University in 2018, and a M.S in Natural Resource Ecology and Management in 2021. As an undergraduate, he researched anthropogenic causes of bird mortality, and the role birds play as vectors of tick-borne diseases. His M.S research focused on white-tailed deer habitat improvement using prescribed fire and forest thinning practices.
His research will focus on modeling chestnut-bellied scaled quail population changes in response to spatio-temporal habitat changes at multiple scales.
Outside of work his interests include fishing, hunting, birding, and hiking.
Michael Barrett
PhD Student
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Michael grew up in a small town in north Texas and earned a B.S. in Animal Biology from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in 2008 and a M.S. in Biology in 2013. As a graduate research assistant, he aided with the development and characterization of microsatellite markers for the seagrass Halodule wrightii. His M.S. research focused on assessing genetic diversity between seedbanks and standing plant populations of Shoalgrass along the southern coast of Texas. After graduating he spent several years with the Fort Worth Zoo working within the Terrestrial Ectotherm department. During this time, he worked with numerous reptile and amphibian species including several threatened and endangered species such as Houston toads, Texas Horned Lizards and Gharials. Following this, he worked with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Coastal Fisheries Department for 5 years. This time was spent devoted to the continuation of the departments ongoing fisheries resource and harvest management program within the Upper Laguna Madre.
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He is excited to join Texas A&M University- Kingsville and Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute. His research will focus on using genomic tools to examine how fragmentation and landscape structure may influence genetic diversity as well as hybridization and introgression between the Rio Grande and Eastern wild turkey subspecies within Oklahoma.
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Outside of work his interests include fishing, hunting, hiking, gardening, and herpetology.
Laura Beck
MSc Student
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Laura grew up in Austin, Texas, where she developed a love for the outdoors. In 2021, she earned her B.S. in Conservation and Restoration Ecology from Utah State University. As an undergraduate, she conducted research to help restore Utah wetlands by looking at the ideal seeding rate and composition of native plant species to outcompete the invasive species Phragmites australis. Before coming to Texas A&M Kingsville, she spent the year working for Texas Conservation Corps.
Her research now, looks at woody plant encroachment and the resulting effects on temperature and sound propagation across the landscape.
Outside of work, you can find Laura hiking with her dogs, paddle boarding, and reading.
Marlin Dart
PhD Student
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Marlin was raised in Boulder City, NV but also spent different periods of his childhood living in Arizona, Oregon, Montana, and North Dakota. He earned a B.S. in Zoology from North Dakota State University and subsequently traveled the country working on research projects across a diverse range of study systems and mammalian species. His research experience includes prairie dog behavioral ecology in New Mexico, mongoose and rodent disease ecology in Hawaii, and predator community dynamics and waterfowl nest survival in South Dakota. Marlin then earned his M.S. from South Dakota State University where his research focused on (i) the spatial and temporal ecology of bobcats and coyotes in an agricultural landscape and (ii) investigating the influence of an olfactory lure and sampling design on the detection of predators and prey.
Marlin is a doctoral student with Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M University - Kingsville where his research focuses on the spatial ecology of pronghorn in the Oklahoma Panhandle. This research is part of a larger collaborative project with Oklahoma State University and East Central University.
Joseph McGovern
MSc Student
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Joseph is from the small town of Bondurant in central Iowa. He grew up surrounded by nature and conservation, and through this discovered a love for birding, hunting, fishing, and hiking. He went on to earn his B.S. in Animal Ecology (Wildlife) from Iowa State University in 2022. During this time, he worked as a technician and undergraduate researcher for projects studying avian occupancy, habitat use, and nest survival in agricultural landscapes. He also spent two field seasons conducting bird, butterfly, odonate, herpetofauna, mammal, and small fish surveys for the Iowa Multiple Species Inventory and Monitoring (MSIM) program on public lands across the state. Outside of academics, he played trombone in the Cyclone Marching Band and was a student leader in the Salt Company through Cornerstone Church of Ames.
As an MSc Student, Joseph will be working in Dr. Evan Tanner's and Dr. Bart Ballard's labs to study thermal performance curves and carry-over effects of breeding in migratory northern pintails.
Former Graduate Students
Katie Pennartz
MSc Student
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Katie grew up in Windthorst, TX and earned her B.S. in Plant Science from the University of Texas at Austin. After graduation she completed an internship in horticultural research at Disney World with projects focused on sustainable food production. Following that, she turned to ecological monitoring work with various organizations including the Bureau of Land Management and the National Ecology Observation Network. During this time she fell in love with the flora of the Southwest and began to specialize as a botanist.
Her research focused on plant responses to a changing climate. One study aimed to determine effective shrub management practices, specifically for whitebrush, by trialing herbicides and investigating the basic reproductive traits of the plant. Her second study explored patterns of niche differentiation and how these patterns influence species responses to climate change.
Katie is currently a PhD student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Former Undergraduate Student Researchers
Autumn Coronado (graduated 2021)
Autumn Coronado grew up in Harlingen, TX and originally chose to pursue her undergraduate degree at Texas A&M University-Kingsville in Animal Science. However, once attending college she engaged in The Wildlife Society with fellow colleagues and switched focus to Range and Wildlife Management. Her interest in conservation is what prompted her to make this switch.
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She worked on an urban ecology project in her hometown that involved Texas tortoises. She collected data focused on patterns in Texas tortoise movements within an urban nature park that frequently has visitors and development nearby.
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Outside of her education, her hobbies include visiting parks on her bucket list, learning how to cook different recipes, bird watching, and watching Animal Planet.
Michael Kalisek (graduated 2022)
Michael Kalisek grew up in Garwood, Texas. At a young age, he was always fascinated with wildlife and the outdoors, and it was this fascination that urged him to pursue a degree involving conservation and wildlife. He obtained an A.A. in Agriculture at Wharton County Junior College in 2020. He obtained a B.S. in Range and Wildlife Management with a minor in Biology.
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Michael researched environmental contaminants in turkey vultures and black vultures in South Texas, with specific focuses on antibiotic resistance and blood lead levels in these important obligate scavengers. Additionally he contributed to research regarding plasticity in the roosting behavior of vultures in South Texas during the 2021 Texas freeze event. Outside of his education and work, Michael enjoys bird watching and gardening among other outdoor activities.