Andrea Dávalos
Andrea Dávalos studies the ecological impacts of invasive species and potential options to manage them, including biocontrol. At her lab in SUNY-Cortland, where she is an associate professor in the Biological Sciences Department, Dávalos is investigating jumping worm impacts within the framework of multiple stressors, such as deer browse or invasive plant competition. She is also exploring current assumptions about jumping worm spread by tracing their expansion from known introduction points in urban parks, and she is also part of a collaboration with HSC members Brad Herrick, Tim McCay, Annise Dobson, and Josef Gorres to trace jumping worm spread and impact more broadly throughout several northeastern forests.
Dávalos grew up in the mountains of Ecuador, and studied biology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador, before receiving her PhD at Cornell University. She also worked in sustainable harvest management in Ecuadorian rainforests and consulted on Ecuadorian conservation lands before arriving at SUNY Cortland in 2016. She hikes in her spare time, and spends time with her teenaged children. She is a passionate believer in the idea that conservation matters not only in remote rainforests, but also in urban parks, backyards, and roadside woodlands.
