Welcome to the HAP-E (pronounced happy!) Lab: the Herpetology And Parasite Evolution Lab housed at the Virginia Museum of Natural History!

Thanking you for visiting the HAP-E Lab! I am the Assistant Curator of Herpetology at the Virginia Museum of Natural History. I completed my dissertation work at the Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science focused on systematics, biogeography, and evolution in snakes of the Pacific, specifically New Guinea. Before that, I was trained in parasitic flatworm taxonomy at Auburn University, working on cryptic diversity within the blood flukes infecting freshwater turtles. Now, using an integrative approach comprising genomics, morphology, and parasitology, I am interesting in enumerating diversity and evolutionary history of herpetofauna and their parasites, specifically from New Guinea and the United States. Stay a while, and check out more details about our ongoing research!

“The mission of the Virginia Museum of Natural History is to interpret Virginia’s natural heritage within a global context in ways that are relevant to all citizens of the Commonwealth.”