This committee is responsible for the administration and selection of student and postdoc travel grants and student presentation awards. The committee’s goal is to enable broader participation in ornithological conferences and events and to enrich the conference experience of those attending through the provisioning of feedback and the celebration of excellence.
Evan Adams, Co-chair, Student Presentation Awards, Travel & Caregiver Grants Committees
he/him
Director of the Quantitative Wildlife Ecology Research Lab
Dr. Evan Adams is the co-director of the Quantitative Wildlife Ecology Research Lab at the Biodiversity Research Institute. He loves thinking about statistical models and his research focuses on the distribution and movements of animals and their responses to environmental change.
Sarah Saunders, Co-chair, Student Presentation Awards, Travel & Caregiver Grants Committees
Chair, Local Host Planning Committee
she/her
Senior Manager of Quantitative Science, National Audubon Society
Sarah Saunders received her Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota, where she studied Great Lakes Piping Plovers. As a postdoc at Michigan State University, she developed models for estimating monarch butterfly abundance throughout the annual cycle. Since coming to Audubon in 2018, Sarah has leveraged innovative quantitative approaches to inform conservation decision-making for birds across the Americas.
Sahas Barve
Chair, DEAI (Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, Inclusion) Travel Grants Committee
Member, Student Presentation Awards Committee
he/him
Program Director of Avian Ecology, Archbold Biological Station
Sahas is an avian ecologist at Archbold Biological Station in Florida where he manages a long-term study of the threatened Florida Scrub-Jays. Sahas is broadly interested in the evolutionary ecology and conservation biology of birds. He loves Indian music and is an award-winning grilled cheese chef.
Pamela Yeh
Co-chair, DEAI (Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, Inclusion) Travel Grants Committee
Member, Student Presentation Awards Committee
Associate Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, UCLA
Pamela Yeh is an Associate Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA. Her research focuses on how populations evolve in novel environments, and she conducts work in both the field and the lab. In the field, she examines bird populations in urban and native habitats, with the goal of understanding how birds may be evolving differently in urban areas compared to native environments. In the lab, she examines how bacteria populations evolve in a range of drug combinations, with the ultimate goal of using evolutionary processes and phenomena to develop strategies to combat multi-drug resistant pathogens. Pamela directs UCLA’s Evolutionary Medicine program, as well as the UC-Historically Black Colleges and Universities Pathways to Ph.D.s: Ecological and Evolutionary Medicine program. In addition, she is actively involved in both public outreach for STEM education as well as in community-engaged research in the Los Angeles community.
Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez
Co-chair, Latin America & Caribbean Travel Grants Committee
Assistant Director, Center for Avian Population Studies; Program Leader, Conservation Science; Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Dr. Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez is a quantitative ecologist specializing in avian population ecology and conservation science. Her research focuses on understanding how environmental changes impact bird populations, using quantitative modeling to inform conservation strategies. She collaborates with decision-makers and local communities to develop science-based solutions that balance biodiversity conservation and human well-being.
Committee Members
Case Youngflesh, Assistant Professor, Clemson University
English 
Spanish 
French