Our Research Team
Raelene M. Crandall, Ph.D.
Lab Principle Investigator
Dr. Crandall grew up in northern Indiana playing in creeks, building forts in trees, and picking wildflowers. As an undergraduate at Butler University in Indianapolis, IN, she learned that fire was integral to maintaining the habitats she enjoyed as a child. She was also given the opportunity to light her first prescribed fire and fell in love with fire and the effects fire has on plant regrowth and flowering. Following her undergraduate degree, Dr. Crandall worked as a wildland firefighter in the Western U.S. and a land manager in the Midwest before beginning graduate school to follow her curiosity and ignite students’ interest in fire. She completed a M.S. at Oklahoma State University, a Ph.D. at Louisiana State University, and a postdoc at Washington University in St. Louis before beginning her appointment at the University of Florida in the School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences. Throughout Dr. Crandall’s career, her interests have remained focused on understanding how plant populations respond to fire. Every plant species has a unique life story and she loves to unravel their tales.
raecrandall@ufl.edu | Twitter | GoogleScholar | ResearchGate
David R. Godwin, Ph.D.
Director, Southern Fire Exchange
David is the director and co-principal investigator of the Southern Fire Exchange program with the University of Florida School Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences. He holds a B.S. in geography from Florida State University and a M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Florida in fire science and forest resources. His fire science research experience spans a variety of southern ecosystems and includes investigations of wildfire burn severity using remote sensing and studies of the effects of prescribed fire and mechanical fuel treatments on Southeastern forests and soil carbon dynamics. Since 2013, he has led technology transfer programs for the Southern Fire Exchange (SFE). With funding provided by the Joint Fire Science Program, SFE is a collaboration among the University of Florida, North Carolina State University, Tall Timbers Research Station, and the US Forest Service Southern Research Station. The SFE team works with interagency partners to develop resources, programs, and opportunities to increase the relevance and application of wildland fire science information in land management decisions across eleven states in the Southeastern U.S.
David is a certified fire ecologist and a member of the Association for Fire Ecology. He is the founder of the University of Florida Student Association for Fire Ecology (SAFE) chapter, a member of the Prescribed Fire Science Consortium, and a steering committee member of the North Florida Prescribed Fire Council. David is remotely based at Tall Timbers Research Station and lives in Tallahassee with his family.
drg2814@ufl.edu | Twitter | GoogleScholar | SouthernFireExchange
Jennifer Fill, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Scientist
Jen is broadly interested in the ecology and management of fire and fiery ecosystems. Her passion lies in understanding fundamental ecosystem dynamics so we can more appropriately manage them, especially landscapes that are strongly affected by human activities.
Jen received a Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina, Columbia where she studied southeastern U.S. pine savanna ecology, restoration, and management. She then traveled to Stellenbosch University in South Africa for her first postdoc, which involved studies on invasive plants and fire management in fynbos and savanna landscapes. As a Research Assistant Scientist collaborating with the Crandall Fire Ecology Lab, Jen is studying how interactions among fire and plants influence the resilience of pine savannas in the U.S. and Belize.
jfill@ufl.edu | Twitter | GoogleScholar | ResearchGate
Ludie Bond
Ph.D. Student
Ludie has been a Wildfire Mitigation Specialist with the Florida Forest Service for the last 17 years, covering one of their 15 designated districts in Florida. The Waccasassa Forestry Center/District 8 is composed of five counties: Alachua, Gilchrist, Levy, Marion, and Putnam. In her capacity as Public Information Officer, Ludie provides local, state and national media with information about wildfires, wildfire causes, wildfire prevention, and fuel mitigation programs in the area. she also develops Firewise projects and Countywide Community Wildfire Protections Plans to lower the risk of wildfires and the effects of wildfires in vulnerable communities.
Ludie has a B.S. in Public Relations and a M.S. in Forest Resources and Conservation from the University of Florida. While completing her Ph.D.,Ludie is also serving as a Type 1 Public Information Officer on one of four Type 2 Incident Management Teams with the Florida Forest Service and on one of two Type 1 Federal Incident Management Teams based in the southeastern United States (the Southern Area Red Type 1 IMT).
ludiebond@ufl.edu | ResearchGate
Rashelle Deak
Ph.D. Candidate
Prior to joining the Crandall Fire Ecology Lab, Rashelle studied the degree to which urban expansion affects plant invasion patterns in forested ecosystems of the eastern U.S. Her current research focuses primarily on the effects of wildland fire and other abiotic factors on population dynamics of pine species in the southeastern U.S. Additional areas of interest include interactions between wildland fire, pollinator service and climate change, and understanding the implications of these interactions for the restoration and management of pine-dominated ecosystems. Rashelle received her M.S. in Ecological Restoration from the University of Florida in 2019.
rdeak@ufl.edu | Twitter | ResearchGate
Phillip Rodgers
Ph.D. Student
After completing his master's degree in human-wildlife conflicts in southwestern Florida, Phillip worked as a wildlife habitat management biologist for several years. He developed a passion for managing and restoring wildlife habitat through the application of prescribed fires. Phillip recently returned to the research world as a conservation social scientist working for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Phillip is pursuing a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Ecology and hopes his research on the human dimensions of prescribed burning will contribute to the application of more prescribed fire in Florida, the southeastern United States, and beyond. He is a Florida native and a former Gator grad. Phillip’s undergraduate and master's studies were both in the Wildlife Ecology and Conservation department at UF, where he focused on the human dimensions of natural resource management.
p.rodgers1@ufl.edu | ResearchGate
Collaborator & Honorary Lab Member
Todd earned a Bachelor of Science in Natural Resources Conservation and Management from Oregon State University. He is a volunteer field ecologist for the Florida Forest Service at the Seminole State Forest's Warea Tract and the Avon Park Air Force Range. Todd is interested in rare and endemic species management and recovery and community/population ecology in pyrogenic ecosystems.
Todd is a professional firefighter with the Orlando Fire Department. He is a Technical Rescue Instructor for a private consulting firm in East Central Florida. Todd is also the Conservation Committee Chair for the Florida Native Plant Society and an Instructor for the Florida Master Naturalist Program. He has worked for The Nature Conservancy and the United States Forest Service as a fire manager, wildlife technician, and helitac firefighter. Todd is a member of The Wildlife Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the International Association of Fire Ecology.
rtodd.angel@gmail.com | Twitter
Todd Angel
Research Technician
While I do not actively conduct research, I enjoy occasionally helping the team in the field locate objects like plant ID tags. Hobbies include beeping at metal and finding things others can't.
Twitter (coming soon)
Hermann
M.S. Students, Non-Thesis
Jessica Baker
Sam King
Katrina Koning
WynLyn McBride
Mary Olendorf
Stephen Wasp
Undergraduate Students
Adele Kimball (2022-present)
Victoria Lopez-Scarim (2021-present)
Research Technicians
Debriana Love (2023-present)
Additional Lab Members
Postdoctoral Researchers
Lauren Trotta (2022-2023)
Carolina Baruzzi (2020-2022)
Daijiang Li (2019)
Jennifer Fill (2018-2023)
M.S. Students
Julia Hadden, M.S., Ecological Restoration (2023)
Tiffany Moore, M.S., Forest Resources and Conservation (2023)
Caroline Ritchey, M.S., Forest Resources and Conservation (2023)
Hannah Turbiville, M.S., Ecological Restoration (2023)
Zach Henshaw, M.S., Ecological Restoration (2022)
Hope Miller, M.S., Forest Resources and Conservation (2021)
Nicole Mitchell, M.S., Ecological Restoration (2021)
Mary Nell Armstrong, M.S., Forest Resources and Conservation (2021)
Jessica Hong, M.S., Forest Resources and Conservation (2020)
Gage LaPierre, M.S., Forest Resources and Conservation (2020)
Anne Blanchard, M.S., Ecological Restoration (2019)
Rashelle Deak, M.S., Ecological Restoration (2019)
Danielle Lacouture, M.S., Forest Resources and Conservation (2019)
Lauren Wilkinson-Akins, M.S., Ecological Restoration & Natural
Resource Policy (2019)
Garrett Christ, M.S., Ecological Restoration (2018)
Bethany Kraft, M.S., Ecological Restoration (2018)
Thomas Lydon, M.S., Ecological Restoration (2018)
Sherry Carpenter, M.S., Ecological Restoration (2017)
Undergraduate Students
Sam Enfield (2021-2023)
Arti Chequer (2019-2021)
Yingen Chew (2018-2022)
Willie Duhart (2019-2021)
Ash Ehlers (2019-2020)
Jesse Frazier (2017-2018)
Marion-Ian Javier (2019-2020)
Debriana Love (2022-2023)
Natalia Medina-Irizarry (2018-2020)
Hope Miller (2018-2021) Milo Neelands (2019-2021)
Eric Robertson (2019-2020)
Camille Sicangco (2020-2021)
Visunraya Suepukdee (2019-2020)
Stephen Wasp (2021-2022)
Cesar Zamora (2019-2020)
April Zee (2019-2022)
