Dr. Kier Klepzig
Director and Scientist
Christine Favorito
Research Associate I
- Phone Ext: 4107
- Download Full CV
- christine.favorito@jonesctr.org
Christine Favorito graduated with her MS from UGA’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources studying native bee communities in Georgia’s working pine forests. She enjoys exploring all the insect biodiversity the Jones Center has to offer, especially the bees! Christine’s research interests include comparing bee (and other insect) diversity in different environments and also telling everybody about native bees all the time. She enjoys hiking, spending time near water, and other people’s pets. Christine also has a BS in biology from the George Washington University in Washington, DC. She has previously worked at Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and served in AmeriCorps with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and Hackensack Riverkeeper.
Thomas Ohmen
Research Technician II
Thomas Ohmen began working as the Research Technician II at the Jones Center in May 2024. He graduated with his MS in Entomology from North Carolina State University in December of 2020. His research was on the overwintering reproductive phenology of the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug in the mountains and coastal plains of NC. His love for insects began in middle school after attending a bug camp in his hometown of Asheville, NC. He started his own personal insect collection then and has continued collecting/pinning as a hobby ever since. Thomas enjoys spending time with his wife Madison and their 13-year-old golden retriever Raleigh. His hobbies include hiking, camping, disc golf, and birding.
Lindsey Grimes
Seasonal Research Technician
Lindsey started January 2024 as a seasonal technician with
the entomology lab. She graduated with a B.S. in Biology from Abraham Baldwin
Agricultural College in 2023, where she was involved in research. This included
observing and identifying the pollinators for a local hemi-parasitic plant (Seymeria
pectinata) and looking at the effects of anti-depressant drugs on the
growth rate of Sarcophagidae flies. She has also previously worked with
the USDA in a plant pathology and nematology lab. When she is not looking for
bugs, she enjoys the outdoors, any hobby that involves crafts, and reading. She
hopes to go to grad school at some point and to continue pursuing a career in entomology.
Graduate Students
Thomas N. Sheehan
Ph.D. Student
Alexia Marconi
Ph.D. Student
Alexia is a Ph.D. student at the University of Georgia, co-advised by Drs. Kamal Gandhi and Kier Klepzig. She is studying plant-pollinator interactions in both montane longleaf pine and coastal systems. She graduated from Canisius University in 2019 with a BS in Biology as well as Animal Behavior, Ecology & Conservation. She recently earned her MS from Eastern Kentucky University, where she studied bee functional groups in Costa Rica. Alexia grew up in New York but through her academic career, has found a passion for travel. She also enjoys hiking (looking for bugs), photography (taking pictures of bugs), and painting (doodling bugs). When Alexia’s not in the lab, you can find her spending time with her partner, Patrick, and her cats, Cleo and Goldie.
Leela Hospach
M.S. Student
Leela is an M.S. student at Clemson University under the direction of Dr. Jess Hartshorn, Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation, and Dr. Kier Klepzig, the Jones Center at Ichauway. She is studying the ecology of eye gnats in longleaf pine ecosystems. She recently moved from Guam, where she worked for several years as a wildlife biologist managing invasive fire ant and rhino beetle control programs. Some of her interests include free diving and Antarctica.
Lab Alumni
Gabriel Tigreros
M.S. Student
Gabriel graduated with his MS from the University of Georgia, under the direction of Dr. Joseph McHugh, Department of Entomology, and Dr. Kier Klepzig, the Jones Center at Ichauway. He studied insects and fungi utilizing deadwood in the longleaf pine ecosystem. He graduated in May of 2018 from the University of Central Florida with a bachelor’s degree in general biology. He got his first taste of entomology during his senior year of undergrad, and spent many moments of his final semester as a volunteer in the university’s entomology lab. Here, he helped pin, sort and identify insects, and found that it was something he loved to do. After graduating, Gabriel spent some time in San Francisco working with the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy as a habitat restoration technician. While living in California, he would go on to develop a strong interest in mycology, where he would spend much of his free time hiking and documenting his encounters with many different fungi. Gabriel has also had the honor of helping out with a variety of rare plant/wildlife monitoring projects during his time in SF, giving him a wide range of memorable experiences as a naturalist.
Sydney Pleak
Seasonal Research Technician
Sydney began her journey as a seasonal technician at Ichauway in January 2023. During her first round as a technician, she contributed to the Trends in Arthropod Biodiversity Systems (TABS) long-term monitoring project and assisted with the frosted elfin introduction project. She also supported various graduate student research projects, including a study on aquatic insect emergences in geographically isolated wetlands, the relationships between prescribed fire, dead wood, and beetle communities, and the impact of disturbances on ant communities. After leaving Ichauway in December 2023, Sydney worked as an imperiled species technician at Tall Timbers Research Station to continue working with frosted elfins. At Tall Timbers, she was part of a large-scale repatriation project, leading host plant surveys across state parks and wildlife management areas in North Florida and advising park biologists on best management practices. Additionally, she collaborated with the geospatial lab to use drones for locating sundial lupine, the frosted elfin’s host plant. Sydney returned to Ichauway in May 2024, where she focused on several publications. While she plans to pursue grad school in the future, she’s having fun being a professional butterfly catcher and working on ways to convince us all to eat bugs.
Jade Higgins
Seasonal Research Technician
Jade started in May of 2023 as a seasonal technician in the entomology lab at The Jones Center. Her main task at the Jones Center was to assist with TABS (Trends in Arthropod Biodiversity Systems), during which she did field work and lab work, both of which she enjoyed. Jade graduated from Fairmont State University in 2022 and has worked in the molecular ecology research lab at Duquesne University helping to study the diet of migratory birds via molecular techniques. She also has worked as a naturalist intern at John D. MacArthur Beach State Park. When she isn’t looking at bugs, she likes to go hiking, kayaking, and skateboarding.
Mary McTeague
Seasonal Research Technician
Mary graduated from Luther College with a BA in environmental science and English literature. She started working as a research technician at Ichauway in May 2022. Mary has always been fascinated by the outdoors and everything that lives there, and she became especially interested in insects after taking an undergrad entomology class. At Ichauway, she learned a lot about arthropod activity in longleaf pine ecosystems, and she did a project looking at diel activity of insects on site. In her free time Mary enjoys hiking, reading, cooking, and spending time with her dog.
Madi Dunlap
Seasonal Research Technician
Madison Dunlap is a graduate from the University of Redlands with a bachelor’s degree in general biology who started as an entomology technician at Ichauway in January 2022. She has always had a particular fascination with invertebrates but her passion for insects started before her senior year of college with a summer lab internship researching insect pollinator trapping methods. She continued this project during senior year and developed a love for bees and wasps that is still strong today. After college she worked as a plant ecology technician which helped her get outside and in nature where she learned to appreciate the beautiful interaction between plants and insects. In her free time she loves to roller skate, cook, grow gourmet mushrooms, and make rugs.
Victoria Cassidy
Seasonal Research Technician
From a young age Victoria was captivated by nature, and knew she wanted to explore and work in the outdoors. Victoria graduated from Reinhardt University with a BS in biology where she played college soccer. Shortly after graduating she went on to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail. Victoria received her MS in forest resources at the University of Georgia studying the success of systemic insecticide treatments in reducing Nantucket pine tip moth (NPTM) infestations and damage to loblolly pine trees, the potential non-target effects from the treatments, and the phenology of NPTM. Hobbies she enjoys include hiking, helping others (especially dogs), reading, playing soccer, and listening/dancing to music.
Christopher Terrazas
Seasonal Research Technician
Adam Knapp
Seasonal Research Technician
Riley Egan
Seasonal Research Technician
Riley graduated from Georgia Southern University in 2019 with a BS in Biology. As a native of Southwest Georgia and having interests in invertebrate ecology, Riley jumped at opportunity to join the Entomology Lab at the Jones Center in the fall of 2019. Riley is currently pursuing his MS in Environmental and Biological Sciences at Troy University where he is conducting research on the effects of impoundments and invasive crayfish on native crayfishes in the Cahaba watershed. In his free time, he likes to spend as much time outdoors as he can and enjoys kayaking, hiking, fishing, running, and playing guitar.
Stephen W. Golladay, Ph.D.
Scientist
Dr. Golladay’s interests include the ecology of streams and wetlands, the impact of human land use on water quality and aquatic invertebrates, and the impact of variation in hydrology on ecological processes and aquatic communities Recently, he has developed an interest in the ecology and conservation of rare and endangered freshwater mussel species.
Dr. Golladay has served as a technical advisor to the Sand County Foundation, Georgia EPD, DNR and Water Management districts in Florida. He has developed training activities for resource professionals in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Dr. Golladay also has assisted in the development of programs to enhance the
natural resource awareness of regional educators in cooperation with regional Georgia Youth Science and Technology.
