Chad Teal

Chad Teal received his master’s degree in Aquaculture from the University of Miami. His research in Florida focused on the sustainability of marine finfish aquaculture and recirculating aquaculture system design. Chad went on to become the technical director and lead educator for an environmental education center he helped develop called the Miami Science Barge. Chad has extensive experience in aquatic science research, living system design and construction, and public outreach and education. Chad’s doctoral research at the University of Arizona focused on developing genetic methods to control invasive populations of Red Shiner and Green Sunfish. Chad has been a member of the Bonar Lab for 4 years.

Larissa Lee

Larissa Lee earned a B.A. from Colby College in 2013, with majors in both Environmental Studies and Global Studies. Since 2013, she has worked with fish populations in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. In Wyoming, she helped to remove invasive lake trout from Yellowstone Lake in Yellowstone National Park. Larissa spent a year working as an AmeriCorps member at Trout Unlimited, where she developed a restoration strategy for a degraded watershed in Montana. In Idaho, she monitored salmonid populations as a fisheries technician for Idaho Fish and Game. Larissa came to the University of Arizona in 2016 to complete her M.S. in Natural Resources, with a focus on fisheries conservation and management. As a graduate research assistant at the University of Arizona, Larissa is developing habitat suitability criteria for native and nonnative species in multiple Arizona rivers and streams. She is also examining the relationship between hydrologic flow regime and fish community structure throughout these rivers and streams. Her research will inform fisheries managers on how to best protect flow regime to promote the success of native fish populations. 

Thomas Archdeacon

Thomas Archdeacon leads the Rio Grande Silvery Minnow salvage and augmentation program to help recover Rio Grande Silvery Minnow. Additionally, serves as an associate editor for the North American Journal of Fisheries Management.

Ambre Chaudoin

Ambre Chaudoin completed a B.S. in Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology from the University of California, Davis. She has extensive ecological research experience, dealing in a variety of freshwater and marine ecosystems through work experience with organizations and institutions such as UC Davis, Bodega Marine Laboratory, Monterey Bay Aquarium, The Marine Mammal Center, and Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley. Ambre is currently working on an MS degree at the University of Arizona in collaboration with the US Geological Survey, the US Fish and Wildlife Service the National Park Service, and the Devils Hole pupfish Recovery Team on aspects of the conservation and recovery of the critically endangered Devils Hole pupfish. Her research specifically focuses on investigating the factors that drive reproduction of the Devils Hole pupfish with implications for management in the wild population as well laboratory propagation applications.

Emily Freed

Student

Alison Iles

Alison Iles was the lab's research specialist for several years, working with Scott as a lead researcher on the North American freshwater fish standard sampling project. This assignment involved contacting various state / provincial and federal fish and wildlife agencies across North America to obtain and compile data on fisheries indices for common species of fish. Alison also coordinated and executed field research examining the relationship of Asian tapeworm infection rates with habitat and biological factors. Following her work at the University of Arizona, Alison obtained a Ph.D. in Marine Sciences at Oregon State University and is currently employed there as a postdoctoral researcher. Alison came to Arizona after completing a B.Sc. in Environmental Science and a M.Sc. in Aquatic Ecology at McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

Laura Leslie

Laura Leslie got her BS at the University of Wyoming and worked for Wyoming Game and Fish for a while. Her MS project at the University of Arizona was investigating the diet and consumption rates of introduced predatory fishes on native desert fishes in the Verde River, Arizona. This project was conducted to identify those introduced fish species that preyed most heavily on native desert fishes, and what types of habitats, the time of year, and what size classes were responsible for most of the predation. This information is used by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Arizona Game and Fish Department to manage the river's fish communities. Laura graduated in August 2003 was first employed as a Research Biologist with the Arizona Game and Fish Department, working on the Colorado River.Aquatic Ecologist and is now working as a fisheries biologist at SWCA Environmental Consultants in Cody, Wyoming.

Joshua Grant

Earned a B.S. in Wildlife Science from New Mexico State University in 2016. After graduating, Josh got a job with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service mainly working with the endangered Rio Grande Silvery Minnow. Josh then accepted a graduate position for fall 2019 to work towards his masters degree in fisheries management. His project included working with the Arizona Game and Fish Department to help standardize gill net and boat electrofishing surveys to align with those of the American Fisheries Society. Upon graduating in 2022, he is now a warm water sportfish biologist with New Mexico Department of Game and Fish.

Zach Nemec

Zach Nemec grew up in the greater Cleveland area of Ohio. He attended his undergraduate at Hiram College, a small liberal arts school in Northeast Ohio. During his undergraduate career, Zach conducted research in Dr. Jennifer Clark’s stream ecology lab. He focused on how channel reconfiguration affected the macroinvertebrate community and ecosystem function in a low order stream.  Zach was also a part of the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program at Northern Arizona University. All through his time as a scholar, he interned with U.S.G.S. Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center and UC San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in spring 2016, he started his graduate assistantship at the University of Arizona with Dr. Scott Bonar.  Zach’s research consists of developing habitat suitability criteria for both native and nonnative fish species in several medium size rivers in central Arizona. In addition, he is investigating the role of riparian vegetation has on fish communities.   

Morgan Brizendine

Morgan Brizendine received a B.S. in Fisheries Science from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. She is currently pursuing an M.S. in Natural Resources with a concentration in fisheries management and conservation at the University of Arizona. Morgan's work focuses on the use of ultrasonic imaging and Ovaprim® to evaluate humpback chub Gila cypha egg maturation in the main stem Colorado River in the Grand Canyon downstream of Glen Canyon Dam. Humpback chub are an endangered species of fish endemic to the Colorado River basin. The development of non-lethal methods to assess egg maturation in female humpback chub could provide critical information biologists need to continue management of this species.

Stephani Clark-Barkalow

Stephani Clark-Barkalow received a BS in Conservation Biology from the University of New Mexico. Stephani came to the University of Arizona to obtain a Master's degree studying total suspended sediment tolerance and effects of border patrol activity on Yaqui chub, a minnow on both U.S. and Mexican endangered species lists. This work will be used by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Border Patrol to minimize, where possible, any affects to the rare fishes found on the border. Stephani's project allowed her to work on both sides of the U.S./Mexican international border with biologists and private landowners. Stephani graduated in May 2014 and went to work for American Southwest Ichthyological Researchers in Albuquerque, NM as a fisheries biologist studying endangered fishes of the Colorado River Basin.

Olin Feuerbacher

Olin Feuerbacher recieved a BS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Arizona, was employed as staff, and is working on an MS at the University of Arizona. Olin brought great expertise in fish rearing and propagation to his work at the University of Arizona, where he served as a Fisheries Laboratory Manager, and an endangered fish propagation biologist. His MS work centers on developing better methods to propagate and rear Devils Hole pupfish and related species, which will be used by the US Fish and Wildlife service in their plans for propagating and managing the fish. Olin is currently employed as a fisheries biologist and propagation specialist at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, Pahrump, Nevada, and is in the final stages of completing his degree.

Jason Kline

Jason Kline moved to Tucson from Tennessee in October of 2003, where he earned his B.S. at Tennessee Technological University in Marine and Fisheries Biology. He studied effects of a non-native parasite, the Asian tapeworm, on endangered desert fishes of the Rio Yaqui. Effects of Asian tapeworm on rare desert fishes were needed so agency biologists can understand how to better conserve the fishes. He also developed methods to propagate the endangered Yaqui chub and Yaqui topminnow, the first time ever in captivity. Following graduation, Jason was employed as a Fisheries Specialist with the Arizona Game and Fish Department, and then moved to Denver where he is now a biologist at SWCA Environmental Consultants.

Justin Mapula

Justin Mapula recieved a Bachelor's degree at New Mexico State University and then came to the University of Arizona to obtain a MS degree studying a possible larval food bottleneck to the endangered Devils Hole Pupfish. The Devils Hole pupfish is a highly-endangered species found in a isolated spring and cavern system in Death Valley National Park. Both US Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service biologists want to find which factors limit their population. Justin held four leadership positions in the student chapters of the American Fisheries Society and Wildlife Society where he gained experience with a variety of species, government agencies, and public interest groups. He is currently employed by the U.S. Forest Service as a fisheries biologist in Shasta, California.

Steven Ingram

Originally from Napa, California, Steven began working in fisheries conservation as an undergraduate intern in the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program at Cornell University. After graduating, he worked as a fisheries technician for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and as a fisheries observer for the NOAA Fisheries Groundfish Observer Program. Steven then pursued a Master's degree in Natural Resources at the University of Arizona. His graduate research involved evaluating hydroacoustics and age and growth techniques as methods that could potentially enhance the Arizona Game and Fish Department's routine monitoring of warmwater fisheries in Arizona reservoirs. He now works as a fish biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Whiteriver, Arizona.

Christina Perez

Christina Perez received her B.S. in Forest Wildlife from Western New Mexico University in the spring of 2011. For her senior practicum in 2010 she worked with a fisheries biologist from the Forest Service in the Gila National Forest doing non-native fish removal in the Gila River. This was the point where her career interests shifted to the field of fisheries. Since this experience she has worked in Alaska on the Kenai peninsula locating suitable habitats for juvenile Chinook and Coho salmon. Also, she have worked as a seasonal fisheries technician with Colorado Parks and Wildlife in Meeker, Colorado and in Vernal, Utah, for the Utah Division of Natural Resources. In both of these positions, she gained valuable experience as an integral part of the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program doing non-native fish removal in the Yampa River and Green River. Through her fisheries positions she also gained experience with multiple sampling methods in numerous streams, large rivers, floodplains, lakes, and large reservoirs. While working on her MS with AZCFWRU at The University of Arizona, her project entailed working on large reservoirs in Arizona collecting data using AFS standard methods and using of eDNA to detect the presence of species and their relative abundance.

Cori Carveth

Cori Carveth received her BS degree from Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. Upon completion, she worked as a fisheries biologist for the Peterborough District of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources for two years before beginning her masters research at the University of Arizona. The topic of her thesis involved a comparison of the upper lethal tolerances of nineteen native and nonnative fish species in Arizona. She also worked cooperatively with Ann Widmer to test the thermal tolerances of the threatened species spikedace, Meda fulgida and loachminnow, Tioroga cobitis, under static and fluctuating conditions. The latter experiment involved the construction of a large recirculating computerized laboratory facility. This information was important for management agencies to understand the thermal tolerances of various fishes in the southwestern United States, and manage water bodies accordingly. Cori successfully completed her thesis in the spring of 2005 and an advanced in a series of postions from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources; the Arizona Game and Fish Department; Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. She is now a Biologist and Project Manager at Golder Associates Ltd, Ontario, Canada.

Alexander Didenko

Alexander Didenko received an undergraduate degree at the University of Moscow in Ichthyology. He worked several years with Marine fisheries agencies in the former Soviet Union studying the biology of arctic fishes and reservoir species, and later received a MS degree in France. Alexander changed tracks considerably when he came to study desert fishes. He developed relative weight equations to help sample four rare desert fishes for his MS, which he received in May 2002. He is currently employed in the Ukraine as a research biologist for the Institute of Fisheries of the Ukrainian Academy of Agrarian Sciences

Jon Flinders

Jon Flinders received a BS degree at Utah State University and worked with the Utah Division of Wildlife on the fisheries at Bear Lake for a time. He came to the University of Arizona to study the effects of introduced northern pike on Arizona fish communities. Northern pike are currently in only a few lakes in Arizona, and illegal introductions by the public have expanded their distribution, even to within 5 miles of the Mexican border. Jon worked closely with the Arizona Game and Fish Department to study the impacts of this top piscivore. Jon graduated December 2004, was first employed as a district biologist in Yuma with the Arizona Game and Fish Department, then went to the University of Arkansas to obtain a Ph.D. He is currently employed as a research fisheries biologist with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

Yuliya Kuzmenko

Dr. Yuliya Kuzmenko (sitting) was a visiting scholar from Zaporizhzha National University, Ukraine, where she has gained extensive experience in fisheries management of freshwater reservoirs and the evolution of populations of non-native species in new conditions. Yuliya lended her Eastern European experience to develop mechanical removal methods for invasive populations of northern pike (Esox lucius) in Arizona reservoirs. Northern pike can decimate populations of other fishes in lakes if illegally introduced, and management strategies for agencies are important. Prior to her arrival in Arizona, Yuliya was an Assistant professor at Zaporozhzhya State University where she lectured and performed fisheries research. She also worked as a fisheries researcher for the Ukraine State Ministry of Agricultural Policy, conducting research on fish spawning, fecundity, and population structure. Yuliya completed her Ph.D. in Ichthyology in 2004 with a dissertation on commercial fisheries of the Kakhovka reservoir. She emigrated from the Ukraine, and is currently employed as fisheries biologist in British Columbia, Canada.