Hey There

I received a Bachelor's in Anthropology and one in Sociology at Texas State University (then Southwest Texas State) in 1989. My Ph.D. was awarded in 1999 in Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I studied vervet and patas monkey socioecology for my dissertation research, focusing on the influence that food availability had on female primate competition and dominance. I held a Postdoctoral position at Miami University (of Ohio) from 1999-2000, where I focused on assessing the presence and distribution of chimpanzees in savanna habitats in Senegal.

 

Since 2001, I have been the Principal Investigator of the Fongoli Savanna Chimpanzee Project in Senegal, where I have focused on the environmental pressures that influences ape behavior here and how such behavior differs from chimpanzees living in forested environments. I use these findings to try and inform our knowledge of early hominin behavioral ecology.

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I've studied primates in Kenya, Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica and Peru, as well as Senegal, and I lead field schools to Costa Rica to the El Zota Biological Field School, which I helped initiate in 1999. I am also the Director of the non-profit (501c3) organization, Neighbor Ape, which seeks to conserve chimpanzees in Senegal but also provides for the well-being of people that live alongside them.