Meet our team

Olivia is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the UCLA La Kretz Center for California Conservation Science and Program Director of Project Phoenix. Olivia is studying the effects of wildfire smoke on birds and other wildlife. Olivia is currently exploring how wildfire smoke impacts bird behavior and shapes species distributions.

Olivia was born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin and is proud of her Midwest roots. Olivia is driven by her passion for environmental policy and conservation, her love for birds, and her strong belief in the Wisconsin Idea – the philosophy that a university’s research should be applied to solve problems and improve the health, well-being, and environment of the community it serves.

Olivia believes birding is a superpower, and all community scientists are superheroes. Olivia could not be more excited to lead Project Phoenix and engage communities across California in monitoring and protecting the birds that bring us such joy.

Allison has loved animals her whole life, and fell in love with birds during her undergraduate at UC Berkeley. She is a native Southern Californian, and loves the diversity of habitats (and birds!) available in a very small geographic area! She credits her artistic eye for first drawing her to studying bird coloration, but now that is one of her main fascinations.

Allison is Associate Curator of Ornithology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Allison’s lab is dedicated to understanding the evolution of bird diversity, focusing on two major areas: how birds are responding to human-caused environmental changes, and how and why bird colors evolve. In addition to research, Allison is passionate about inspiring a love of nature in her community and beyond.

Morgan is an ornithologist, conservation biologist, and community and quantitative ecologist.

Morgan is a Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA. Morgan’s research is focused on understanding how large-scale anthropogenic drivers of change (e.g., climate change, invasive species, land-use change, fire regimes, and wildfire smoke) affect geographic distributions of birds and community interactions over short (years) to long (centuries) timespans.

Sam is Program Manager of Community Science at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Sam’s roots in community science grow from field research with their grandma as a child in the lahar fields of the Mt. Pinatubo volcanic eruption. There they saw the power of community knowledge and mutual aid with the land applied to scientific research.

Sam works to support community relationships to the land and natural science as a California naturalist, former nurse, community organizer, and ASTC Community Science Dialogue & Deliberation Fellow. They center their family’s traditional Indigenous ways of learning and connecting, including their experience as a parent to an awesome young child.

Lila is a museum educator with almost two decades of experience in museum education and community science programming. She currently works as Senior Manager of Community Science at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Lila was a lead educator on the museum’s newest nature-themed exhibits—the Nature Lab and Nature Gardens. They also authored the book Wild LA and co-founded a global community science event called the City Nature Challenge.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in entomology from UC Riverside and a master’s degree in environmental education from California State University, San Bernardino.

Miguel is an environmental educator and wildlife biologist and currently works as Senior Manager of Community Science at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

As a community science manager, Miguel promotes and creates community science projects, and recruits and trains participants. Miguel utilizes his mammal research background by conducting urban mammal research in L.A. and co-leads the museum’s Southern California Squirrel Survey. Miguel continues to work, locally and internationally, on carnivore and bat research, including a jaguar project in Nicaragua.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Southern California, and an M.S. in Ecology from UC Davis.

Liliana is a Community Science Coordinator at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHMLAC). She also works as an Older Youth Leader in Compton, CA where she serves students by creating workshops based on their interests and where developing skills can be supported in a safe space. She holds degrees in Earth System Science and Chicane/Latine Studies from UC Irvine and is passionate about working at the intersection of the environment and community. Prior to joining NHMLAC, she provided care and resources to unaccompanied youth coming to the United States from Central America and worked with high school youth in Anaheim on food production and food insecurity issues at Magnolia Agriscience Community Center. At NHMLAC, she works with her team on projects such as SnailBlitz and the Bat Roost Counts, where her background supports her work in broadening access in community science to Spanish-speaking communities.

Yuka is the Communications Lead for Project Phoenix. She is currently a fourth year undergraduate student at UCLA majoring in Ecology, Behavior and Evolution. Her interest in and love for birds has only grown since coming to UCLA, especially through her involvement in the Bruin Birding Club.

Her previous experience interning at a wildlife rehabilitation center inspired her to become more involved in wildlife conservation and to share the importance of investigating the threats that wildlife face. This, combined with her enthusiasm for community science and science education, drew her to Project Phoenix.

Sophia, a senior at Sunny Hills High School, is a superstar Project Phoenix volunteer assisting our communications team with graphics and data visualizations. Sophia’s hobbies include birding, coding, and painting. She also leads her school’s Science Olympiad team. Sophia plans to attend university and major in molecular biology. She also hopes to engage in undergraduate research with medical or ecological applications.

Sophia’s deep appreciation for birds and childhood memories of smoke-filled skies motivated her to join Project Phoenix. She is eager to learn more about how smoke impacts the birds she loves.

Caitlin is a recent alumna of UCLA and served as our program’s Communications Lead from its inception until December 2024. Caitlin is now a consultant for our communications team.

Caitlin majored in political science and biology and is now pursuing a master’s degree at Boston University in global health. Caitlin’s passion for both humanities and natural sciences is what drives her love and appreciation of community science projects.

A lifelong resident of Los Angeles, she has witnessed the increased occurrences of wildfires in her backyard and is very excited to be a part of a project that is working to expand knowledge on impacts on birds and build solutions to protect avifauna.