Doctoral Candidate

Student Background

Principle Advisor:  Dr. Leonard Brennan

Project Title:  New World Quail Genetics

I graduated from Sinton High School, Sinton, Texas in 1990.  I entered the Air Force the same year and was honorably discharged from it in 1993.  I enrolled in Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in 1998 and received my B.S. in 2001.  I stayed at TAMUCC for graduate school.  My thesis project concerned fish assemblages in an urban stream.  During my time at TAMUCC, I was also involved in research on the winter ecology of burrowing owls in southern Texas.  I graduated from TAMUCC with an M.S. in 2006 and from 2006-2008 I was a full-time instructor at Coastal Bend College. I enrolled at Texas A&M University-Kingsville in the summer of 2008 as a Ph.D. candidate. My dissertation project is focused on the phylogeography and phylogenetics of the northern bobwhite, scaled quail, and the Gambel’s quail.