Jessica Blois
Jessica’s research focuses on how environmental and biological drivers shape responses of North American mammals and vegetation to past, present, and future climate changes. She got her B.S. at UC San Diego in 1996, where she majored in Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution. After a few seasons working for the Forest Service, she went back to school and got her M.A. at Humboldt State University in 2005. She then went on to get her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Stanford University (2009), where she focused on understanding the response of California mammals to past climate change. She moved to UW-Madison to do a postdoc on vegetation responses to past climate change, after which she started her position at UC Merced in 2013. Jessica will be starting a new position as a Professor and the Donald R. Dickey Chair in Vertebrate Biology in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA on July 1, 2026
Postdocs
Graduate students
Reina Warnert
Reina is a grad student in the Quantitative and Systems Biology graduate group and started her PhD at UC Merced in Fall 2020. She is interested in conservation paleobiology and the Sierra Nevada, and is working on small mammal community change in response to fire and climate in Yosemite National Park.
Valor Smallwood
Valor is in their third year of their PhD at UC Merced, in the Quantitative and Systems Biology graduate group. They are interested in researching the causes, effects, and mechanics of extinctions in deep time. Additionally, they want to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the geosciences, and sciences at large, to make science a more accessible career that considers multiple perspectives.
Staff
Nick Hoffman
email
Nick does is the data curation and outreach specialist for the Ethical Open Science for Past Global Change Data, a network of researchers who are working to implement ethical and open science principles in Quaternary data ecosystems. Before moving to Merced in 2023, he lived in Madison, WI, where he earned an MS doing interdisciplinary research in environmental history and historical ecology.
Nicola Cullen
email
Nicola is a steward for the Neotoma Paleoecology Database. She works with the Blois Lab on uploading new data and updating existing data for the FAUNMAP and PaVeLA constituent databases, and also serves as a steward for the NAPD and other constituent databases. She has also been assisting with the vertebrate chronology revision with Val and Jessica. Nicola is a long-time Neotoma data steward, and has a M.Sc. in Geography from Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Undergraduates
Alumni
Postdoctoral Scholars
Val Syverson, postdoctoral scholar, 2022-2025. website. Val is now a lecturer and assistant curator in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at UC Davis.
Mairin Balisi, postdoctoral scholar, 2018-2022. website. Mairin is now the Augustyn Family Curator at the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology.
Gio Rapacciuolo, postdoctoral scholar, 2017-2018. website. Gio is now founder and CEO at Elimia.
Sarah Brown, postdoctoral scholar, 2015-2016. website. Sarah is now is a Senior Environmental Scientist at the California Department of Water Resources.
Kaitlin Maguire, postdoctoral scholar, 2014-2015. website. Kaitlin went on to serve as the Executive Director at Idaho STEM Action Center.
Graduate Students
Laura Van Vranken, PhD student, 2019-2024. Laura was a grad student in the Quantitative and Systems Biology graduate group, and moved into the Blois lab in 2019. She is interested in understanding the spatial ecology of species of management concern in the Sierra Nevada, such as western pond turtles, with an eye towards informing conservation decisions related to their management in Yosemite National Park. While at UC Merced, Laura concurrently worked as the Aquatic Ecologist at Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park. She now has a position with the CDFW.
Corey Shaver, MS student, 2020-2022. Corey finished her MS in the lab in August 2022. She went on to serve as lab manager for the Tierney lab at U. Arizona.
Robert Boria, PhD student, 2015-2021. Rob finished his PhD in the lab in May 2021. He secured the NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology to work with Scott Edwards and Hopi Hoekstra at Harvard. Rob is now an Assistant Professor at San Francisco State University. Read more here.
Kinsey Brock, Quantitative and Systems Biology PhD student, 2015-2021. Kinsey finished her PhD in the lab in May 2021. She secured the NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology to work with Ian Wang at UC Berkeley. Kinsey is now an Assistant Professor at San Diego State University. Read more here.
Danaan DeNeve Weeks, Quantitative and Systems Biology PhD student, 2014-2020. Danaan finished their PhD in the lab in December 2020 and then worked as a postdoctoral scholar at the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum. They are now an instructor at the College of Western Idaho.
Nate Fox, Environmental Systems PhD student, 2015-2020. Nate finished his PhD in the lab in August 2020, working on small mammals from the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, CA. He is now the Associate Director of the South Dakota School of Mines Museum of Geology.
J. Eric Williams, Environmental Systems PhD student, 2013-2018. Eric finished his PhD in the lab in December 2018. He is now a professor in Biology at Fayetteville Technical Community College.
Undergraduates
Maya Ibarra, undergrad research assistant, 2024-2026. Maya graduated with a BIO-EEB degree in May 2026 and worked with Reina and Jessica on small mammals projects in 2024- 2026.
Colle Johnson, undergrad research assistant, 2024-2026. Colle graduated with an ESS degree in May 2026 and worked with Reina and Jessica on small mammals projects in 2024- 2026.
Emma McCluskey, undergrad research assistant, 2023-2024. Emma graduated with an ESS degree in May 2025 and worked with Reina and Jessica on small mammals projects from 2023- 2024.
Halaver Oustad, undergrad research assistant, summer 2024. Halaver graduated with a BIO-EEB degree in May 2024 and worked with Reina, Emma, and Jessica on small mammals projects in summer 2024.
Esteban Correa, undergrad research assistant, summer 2023. Esteban is starting his 4th year at a BIO-EEB major and worked with Reina, Emma, and Jessica on the Yosemite small mammals project in summer 2023.
Daniela Alvarado Flores, undergrad research assistant, 2019 – 2021. B.S, 2021, in Earth Systems Science.
Joseph Veneracion, undergrad research assistant, 2017 – 2018. B.S. in Earth Systems Science. Joseph worked with Nate on the La Brea project while he was in the lab.
Aurora Trejo, undergrad research assistant, 2017 – 2018. B.S. in Biology with an emphasis in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. She finished a M.S. in Biology at Cal State LA
Christopher Jorgensen, undergrad research assistant, 2014 – 2016. B.S. in Biology with an emphasis in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. He finished a M.S. in Biology at CSU Fresno.
Andrea Pedraza, undergrad research assistant, 2015 – 2016. B.S in Biology with an emphasis in Molecular and Cell Biology
Angela Yu, undergrad research assistant, 2015 – 2016. B.S., Earth Systems Science
Joceline Santiago, undergrad research assistant, 2014 – 2016. B.S. in Biology with an emphasis in Human Biology
Zara Batac-Bhatti, undergrad research assistant, 2014 – 2015. B.S in Biology with an emphasis in Human Biology
Juliane Liberto, undergrad research assistant, 2013 – 2014. B.S. in Biology with an emphasis in Human Biology. She is completing a PhD at Johns Hopkins.
Tiana Walker, undergrad research assistant, 2014. B.S. in Biology with an emphasis in Human Biology
Stefanie Yupanqui, undergrad research assistant, 2014. B.S. in Biology with an emphasis in Human Biology
Blois Paleoecology Lab 