Graduate Students

Learn more about our graduate program.

Francis Anaya

M.S. Student

francis.anaya@botanicgardens.org

Department of Integrative Biology​
University of Colorado Denver

Franki is looking at the efficacy of seeding as a post-wildfire management practice. She is working with the Bureau of Land Management and using their Assessment, Inventory and Monitoring data to determine if seeding the Beaver Creek burn scar in Jackson County, Colorado has resulted in native vegetation regeneration or surface stabilization

Brielle Cerep-Funke

M.S. Student

brielle.cerepfunke@botanicgardens.org

Department of Integrative Biology​
University of Colorado Denver

Brielle’s research interests include urban ecology and native plant species. She is especially interested in the resiliency of native plants in the face of climate change and urbanization, and how this resiliency may benefit plant communities in a predicted hotter and drier future.

Ash Kerber

M.S. Student

ash.kerber@botanicgardens.org

Department of Integrative Biology
University of Colorado Denver

Ash Kerber is a second year Master’s student exploring the evolutionary history of alpine plants, specifically in the genus Polemonium. She is analyzing their volatile organic compounds and phylogenetics in hopes to demonstrate how diverse alpine angiosperm traits can be, especially those that humans cannot see.

Jessica Loeffler

M.S. Student

jess.loeffler@botanicgardens.org

Department of Integrative Biology​
University of Colorado Denver

Jess is an incoming graduate student with an interest in plant-fungal relationships and learning about the diversity of these interactions. She is specifically interested in researching questions that pertain to mycoheterotrophy.

Justin Loucks

M.S. Student

justin.loucks@botanicgardens.org

Department of Integrative Biology​
University of Colorado Denver

Justin is interested in fungal diversity and ecology and enjoys traveling and documenting rare and unique fungi. His research employs DNA barcoding and phylogenetics to systematically examine the diversity and distributions of taxa in the fungal family Bankeraceae within western North America.

Previous Graduate Students and Thesis Titles

  • My-Lan Le, M.S., University of Colorado – Denver, 2025, Investigating ecological drivers of reproductive variation in an endemic alpine plant (Physaria alpina): competition, pollen limitation, and habitat variation
  • Roy Rutherford, M.S., University of Colorado – Denver, 2025, Assessing urban wetland habitat features and larval mosquito abundances in an urban greenway: implications for public health and management
  • Audrey Spencer , Ph.D., University of Colorado – Denver, 2025, Systematics and biogeography of the Eastern Asian-North American disjunct genus, Physocarpus (Rosaceae)
  • Megan Clark, M.S., University of Colorado – Denver, 2023, Intraspecific variation and local adaptation in native Colorado grassland restoration plant species
  • Tiffany Gentry , M.S., University of Colorado – Denver, 2023, Allopolyploid origin of Eutrema edwardsii: determining diploid progenitors
  • Alissa Iverson, M.S., University of Colorado – Denver, 2023, Evaluating potential for plant community and functional change in an urban canal undergoing hydrologic disturbance from green stormwater infrastructure
  • Emily Orr, M.S., University of Colorado – Denver, 2022, Population genomic analysis of the rare, narrow endemic, Astragalus microcymbus
  • Katherine Fu, Ph.D., University of Colorado – Denver, 2021, Implications of seed source on North American shortgrass prairie under climate change
  • Amanda Miller, M.S., University of Colorado – Denver, 2021, How herbicide and seed treatments impact pollinator habitat in restoration of abandoned rangelands
  • Gary Olds, M.S., University of Colorado – Denver, 2021, Applying a Modified Metabarcoding Approach for the Sequencing of Macrofungal Specimens
  • Liam Cullinane, M.S., University of Colorado – Denver, 2020, City Bees: An investigation of the drivers of bee abundance and bee richness along a rural-to-urban gradient
  • Margo Yousse, M.S., University of Colorado – Denver, 2020, Beaver dam analogs impact riparian vegetation communities
  • Carla DeMasters, M.S., University of Colorado – Denver, 2017, How do native annual and biennial species affect Bromus tectorum L. (Poaceae) abundance?

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