I am the curator of entomology at the Long Island Aquarium's Butterfly and Insect Zoo in Riverhead, NY, and an entomologist and educator at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory's DNA Learning Center.

The Long Island Aquarium is a fun and exciting destination on the East End of Long Island, specializing in interactive and educational animal experiences (shark dive or penguin encounter anyone?)! Learn more about our facility: https://www.longislandaquarium.com/

I've been working in naturalist outreach for more than 20 years (I started volunteering at a Butterfly Vivarium when I was 10), and have been studying and rearing insects since I was 5 years old. I volunteered/worked at Sweetbriar Nature Center in Smithtown, NY, for over ten years, and volunteered at the American Museum of Natural History off and on for several years, as well.

I received my B.S. in Entomology, Plant Science, Neuroscience and Biostatistics in 2011 from Cornell University, and am currently working on my M.S. in Biochemistry at the University of Saint Joseph. During my educational career, I worked in various research labs with exposure to insect physiology and behavior, as well as taxonomy and identification. More recently, I developed an interest in molecular biology and education, which is how I wound up teaching at the DNA Learning Center at CSHL!

At the DNA Learning Center, we use fun and hands-on methods to engage students, and teach them about molecular biology. Students participate in lab exercises where they can do everything from bacterial transformation and forensic analysis to exploring human evolution (using their own DNA)! We also offer trainings for educators interested in learning how to implement these hands-on methods in their own classrooms! Check out our program offerings at our website: https://dnalc.cshl.edu/

In recent years, the DNALC has initiated a number of citizen science programs incorporating DNA barcoding, a molecular tool that seeks to identify organisms on the basis of DNA sequence at particular marker loci. Check out our nationwide citizen science programs and learn how you might get involved:

Barcoding US Ants: https://dnabarcoding101.org/citizen/usants/

Citizen DNA Barcode Network (CDBN): https://dnalc.cshl.edu/programs/citizen.html

The goal of both of these projects is to engage citizen scientists around the country to collect ants, beetles, and mosquitoes in their areas with the purpose of deriving a DNA barcode. These specimens and their sequence information can then be used to fill in knowledge of species ranges, sequence variation, and potentially help to identify new species! One of my roles at the DNA Learning Center has been to curate sequences and verify the taxonomic identities of the organisms collected through these and other projects!

My favorite groups of Arthropods include the Lepidoptera, the spiders (ironically), Crustacea, and (more recently) the Formicidae.

However, I enjoy the challenges of taxonomy, and I'm game to identify any specimen!

Also, if you are interested, check out some of the critters that I deal with at the Aquarium: https://www.instagram.com/krazy4bugz/?hl=en