Student Research Grant Recipients
2021-22

Photo: David Magneyek

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Supporting students

Each year, CNPS awards grants to student researchers focused on California native plants. Supporting research, especially that of students, is crucial to the mission of CNPS. Learn about this year’s 15 recipients below who are contributing to the understanding and conservation of our native flora! CNPS is proud to present this year’s grant recipients, and we wish to thank the generous donors who’ve made these grants possible.

Recipients 2021-22

Annalise Taylor

Comparing the impacts of long term fire management on the abundance and cover of Amah Mutsun cultural plants and three invasive grass species on three adjacent coastal grasslands in Central California

Annalise Taylor

Comparing the impacts of long term fire management on the abundance and cover of Amah Mutsun cultural plants and three invasive grass species on three adjacent coastal grasslands in Central California

As a PhD candidate in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley, Annie is partnering with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band of California's Central Coast to study the ecological impacts of Indigenous stewardship practices with innovative geospatial tools. She has worked extensively in Google Earth Engine, a powerful remote sensing API, to study ecosystem change over time and space and enjoys leading Earth Engine workshops. Her previous research analyzed forest mortality in response to drought on Santa Cruz Island in the California Channel Islands. Annie joined Maggi Kelly's lab at Berkeley after three years as a GIS Analyst at Peninsula Open Space Trust, an environmental nonprofit working to protect and steward parks, farmland, and open spaces in the Bay Area. Prior to that, she spent four years in Vermont at Middlebury College where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Biology with a minor in Spanish language. She is dedicated to applying her skills in remote sensing, ecology, and GIS to study the earth and promote environmental justice and Indigenous sovereignty.
Award: Natalie Hopkins Award

Annie Meeder

Analysis of Alternative Post-Eradication Transitions and Dynamics of Santa Cruz Island Vegetation Communities

Annie Meeder

Analysis of Alternative Post-Eradication Transitions and Dynamics of Santa Cruz Island Vegetation Communities

Annie Meeder is a graduate student in the biology department with an emphasis in ecology at California Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo where she is studying vegetation dynamics on Santa Cruz Island. Annie’s love for ecology and plants began in high school on a trip to Santa Cruz Island doing volunteer research—she now helps lead those trips. In her free time Annie enjoys triathlon, reading, and drawing. Her favorite plant is Lyonothamnus floribundus ssp. asplenifolius, the Santa Cruz Island Ironwood. 
Award: CNPS Student Research Grant

Arthur Pontes-Prates

Precision grazing to control medusahead and promote native grasses

Arthur Pontes-Prates

Precision grazing to control medusahead and promote native grasses

Arthur will be a Ph.D. student at UC Davis, researching how precision grazing can be used as a tool to control medusahead invasion and conserve California's grassland ecosystems. He grew up in southern Brazil in a native grassland ranch, which inspired him to become a grassland scientist. His passion for California grasslands arose during his MS program when he was a visiting scholar at UC Davis for one and a half years. For this project, he is integrating the knowledge gained from a B.S. in Agronomy and Master of Animal Science to develop a user-friendly model to generate grazing management prescriptions to control medusahead for a variety of situations.  He is excited to promote the conservation of native grass species. When not working, Arthur enjoys traveling, hiking, reading, and riding horses.
Award: Hardman Native Plant Research Award

Brooke Kern

Which phenotypic traits most strongly influence the magnitude of hybridization between Clarkia xantiana subspecies?

Brooke Kern

Which phenotypic traits most strongly influence the magnitude of hybridization between Clarkia xantiana subspecies?

Brooke is a third year PhD candidate in the Plant and Microbial Biology program at the University of Minnesota in Saint Paul. As an undergrad, she worked with monkeyflowers in a plant genetics lab and developed a passion for floral evolution. Brooke now spends her summers in the Kern Valley of California using the two subspecies of Clarkia xantiana to study pollination and speciation. Her work involves tracking pollen movement and gene flow within and between the two subspecies. When she isn't thinking about plants, Brooke enjoys reading fantasy novels, knitting, and embroidery.
Award: Helen Sharsmith Grants

Caitlyn Allchin

Assessing relocation habitats and assisted migration of the Lassics lupine, an endangered California serpentine-endemic

Caitlyn Allchin

Assessing relocation habitats and assisted migration of the Lassics lupine, an endangered California serpentine-endemic

Caitlyn is a graduate student in the Biology Department at Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA where she is working on an assisted migration plan for the endangered Lassics lupine, Lupinus constancei. Caitlyn graduated from HSU with a BS in Botany in 2020. Currently she works for a local forestry consultant firm and has been doing botanical work since 2019 in Northern California. Caitlyn is passionate about protecting rare plants and conserving ecologically important habitats. When she’s not botanizing, she loves tide-pooling, mushroom hunting, and exploring the endemic flora of serpentine outcroppings in the California Floristic Province.
Award: Hardman Native Plant Research Award

Christopher Cosma

Beyond the yucca moth: The scale, importance, and vulnerability of moth pollination in Southern California

Christopher Cosma

Beyond the yucca moth: The scale, importance, and vulnerability of moth pollination in Southern California

Chris is a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology Department at UC Riverside. His research focuses on “The Dark Side of Pollination”. While bees get a lot of credit when it comes to pollination, moths are the pollination powerhouses when the sun goes down. Chris uncovers these mysterious interactions in Southern California to help protect moths—and the plants that rely on them—from anthropogenic stressors like climate change. When not tending his moth traps, Chris can be found hiking with his dog Jasper (even in the snow!), converting every inch of his yard into a garden, and trying not to singe his hands while woodburning.
Award: Helen Sharsmith Grants

Emily Sheydayi

A Floristic Analysis of the Vascular Plants in the Sutter Buttes, California

Emily Sheydayi

A Floristic Analysis of the Vascular Plants in the Sutter Buttes, California

Emily is a graduate student in Botany at the California State University, Chico Department of Biology - where she is completing the first formal account of vascular flora of the Sutter Buttes. A Humboldt State alumni, she found her passion for plants amongst the ferns and coastal redwoods. She has since completed field seasons in the Trinity Alps, Umpqua, and Mendocino National Forests treating invasive plants, collecting native seeds and replanting for restoration. She hopes that her work in the Sutter Buttes will bring special attention to its need for preservation, and bring its significance to indigenous tribes to the forefront of the conversation.
Award: Doc Burr Grants

Joanna Tang

Improving vernal pool restoration through ecotypic variation analysis

Joanna Tang

Improving vernal pool restoration through ecotypic variation analysis

Joanna is a Ph.D. student at UC Santa Barbara studying the restoration ecology of vernal pool ecosystems.  California born-and-bred, she grew up in the Bay Area and graduated from UC Davis in 2017 with a B.S. in Environmental Science & Management (and a minor in Medieval Studies!).  She is constantly inspired by the vast diversity of California.  So, she is committed to safeguarding California's endemic biodiversity and working with a diversity of people in stewardship, so she is currently working on urban restoration projects.  Her favorite native plant is Castilleja densiflora, owl's clover.
Award: CNPS Student Research Grants

Kimberly Schaefer

A Vascular Flora of the Sacatar Trail Wilderness

Kimberly Schaefer

A Vascular Flora of the Sacatar Trail Wilderness

Kimberly is a Botany master’s student at California Botanic Garden/Claremont Graduate University where she is conducting floristic research in the Sacatar Trail Wilderness of the southeast Sierra Nevada. Her passion for botany began at an early age growing up in the Pacific Northwest, but during her undergraduate education at Cal Poly Pomona, she fell in love with the unique and rugged native plant communities of southern California. After earning her B.S. degree in Biology, she spent three years working as a conservation technician for California Botanic Garden in both the invasive plant and seed bank programs before joining the graduate program in 2021. Kimberly is particularly interested in monitoring the effects of climate change on plant community distribution, and strives to provide data that will inform and justify habitat conservation efforts.
Award: Doc Burr Grants

Megan Teigen

Bacterial communities facilitating prey item breakdown in the carnivorous plant Darlingtonia californica

Megan Teigen

Bacterial communities facilitating prey item breakdown in the carnivorous plant Darlingtonia californica

Megan is a second year biology graduate student at Humboldt State University where she studies how the bacterial community of the host plant Darlingtonia californica aid in insect prey breakdown and nutrient acquisition. Her previous experience in natural product biochemistry and interests in microbial and plant ecology come together to produce unique questions about how plants and their microscopic friends work together to thrive in their environments. She is excited to advance understanding about microbial diversity and how these concepts can be used to protect California’s diverse native flora. Outside of class and work, Megan enjoys long trail runs, learning how to code, and video games.
Award: CNPS Student Research Grant

Rachel Friesen

Climate Change and Plant Community Turnover in Yosemite National Park

Rachel Friesen

Climate Change and Plant Community Turnover in Yosemite National Park

Rachel is an incoming master's student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. She plans to research shifts in alpine plant communities by resurveying historic vegetation plots in Yosemite National Park. She grew up in the Sierra Nevada foothills where her fascination in the local flora developed at a young age. Since graduating from UC Davis, she has worked with American Rivers, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the National Park Service in Yosemite and Kings Canyon on a variety of ecological restoration and meadow monitoring projects. In her free time, she enjoys playing the accordion, backpacking, and growing native plants and vegetables in her yard in Fresno. 
Award: Helen Sharsmith Grants

Raphaela E. Floreani Buzbee

Coastal plant community composition shifts in response to tule elk herbivory

Raphaela E. Floreani Buzbee

Coastal plant community composition shifts in response to tule elk herbivory

Raphaela is a second-year PhD student in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the University of California, Berkeley advised by Dr. David Ackerly. In addition to her graduate studies, Raphaela has over a decade of professional experience as a botanist and vegetation ecologist across California. Her research interests include climate-driven changes in patterns of vegetation and plant diversity,  and opportunities for resilient stewardship, management and cultural engagement. Her current research is focused on microclimatic variation in coastal prairies at the Tomales Point Tule Elk Preserve in Point Reyes National Seashore. In her spare time, she enjoys roller skating and admiring mariposa lilies.
Award: Natalie Hopkins Award

Rhea Amatya

Assessing passive vegetation recovery on Santa Cruz Island with undergraduate-led collaborative science

Rhea Amatya

Assessing passive vegetation recovery on Santa Cruz Island with undergraduate-led collaborative science

Rhea is a fourth year undergraduate student majoring in Biology and minoring in Applied Statistics at the University of California, Riverside. She is accepting this award as a representative of the Strategies for Ecology Education, Diversity, and Sustainability (SEEDS) Chapter at UC Riverside, an organization dedicated to providing students with opportunities in ecology. She is excited to contribute to the scientific understanding of passive vegetation recovery following invasive herbivore removal. The project that she will lead will continue long-term vegetation monitoring efforts and further botanical documentation on Santa Cruz Island. The project will also provide a unique field research experience for a diverse group of students with potential to be leaders in science and conservation.
Award: CNPS Student Research Grant

Selena Vengco

Floral Evolution and the Maintenance of Flower Color Polymorphisms in Non- Model System of Erythranthe discolor (Phrymaceae)

Selena Vengco

Floral Evolution and the Maintenance of Flower Color Polymorphisms in Non- Model System of Erythranthe discolor (Phrymaceae)

Selena is a masters botany student at the California Botanic Garden/Claremont Graduate University where she is assessing the drivers of flower color polymorphisms in Erythranthe discolor. She fell in love with conservation and public education when she was an intern at the Chicago Botanic Garden in 2018. After studying disease ecology in vineyards for a couple of years, she’s back studying the California flora! She is passionate about bringing the wonders of native plants into the hands of the general public. When not working or studying, Selena enjoys looking for pollinators and mountain biking.
Award: CNPS Student Research Grant

Tamsen Dunn

Study of a Novel Sierra Nevada Boechera (Brassicaceae)

Tamsen Dunn

Study of a Novel Sierra Nevada Boechera (Brassicaceae)

Tamsen is a third year graduate student in the joint doctoral program at San Diego State University and the University of California Riverside, where she is studying evolutionary biology. After 10 years as a bioinformatics scientist and doing habitat restoration in her vacations, Tamsen felt it was time to combine her research with her life-long passion for plants and conservation. Tamsen is studying stress tolerance and genome evolution of polyploid rock cress (Boechera) of the Sierra Nevada. Tamsen enjoys rock climbing and camping with her favorite research assistants, her twin daughters.
Award: G. Ledyard Stebbins Award

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