Occupation: Postdoctoral Research Associate
Affiliation: National Research Council, NOAA-NMFS Northwest Fishery Science Center, University of Washington
Kristin’s Research: I’m a community ecologist—broadly interested in how species interactions and the physical environment interact to shape large-scale ecological patterns. I work on applied questions in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, in the field and behind a computer (mostly the latter these days).
Education:
B.A. Marine Biology, Boston University 2003
M.S. Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, 2007
PhD Ecology, Colorado State University, 2011
Favorite Species: Mountain goat (Oreamnus americanus). I’ve never worked with them, but for some reason, I have a strong affinity to all things bovid.
Best Field Season: I had 4 month field seasons in Yellowstone during my Phd. I LOVED tromping around the park on and off trail, hopping streams, dodging bison, digging holes, and counting millions of willow shoots.
Places I’ve Lived: Bismarck (ND), Burke (VA), Madison (WI), Springfield (IL), Boston (MA), Seattle (WA), Fort Collins (CO)
In my Field Backpack: Sadly, I don’t have a field backpack at the moment. But when I did, I’d always carry raingear, first aid kit, bear spray, tape measure, calipers, hand-crafted well-reader, field notebook, lots of pencils, and more food than I ever could possibly need.
How I got interested in Ecology: 1. Many summers of Girl Scout camp in northern Wisconsin, and 2. A week I spent on a huge sail boat in Lake Michigan learning about aquatic ecology in middle school.
What keeps me coming back: I am passionate about problem-solving– ecology is a giant, hugely complex puzzle. Even though I can only chip away at one small piece at a time, I feel like the work I do inches our understanding of life on this planet forward in small but meaningful ways.
Places I’ve Done Research:
- Yellowstone National Park
- Woods Hole, MA
- Various institutional offices and cubicles that generally lack windows
- My basement, and countless Seattle coffee shops.
Kristin’s Contact Info:
- Email Kristin at kmarsh2@gmail.com
- Follow Kristin on Twitter at: @knmarshall
- Learn more about her research at: https://sites.google.com/site/kmarsh2/
** Kristin’s post-doc research is funded by NRC/NOAA, and her PhD research was funded by NSF.
Early Career Ecologists 
Did that camp in Northern Wisconsin happen to be Camp Nawakwa? I think its safe to say we’ve earned our ecologist badges!
Just realized I never responded to this. It was actually Camp Black Hawk for me. So many memories!