Maggie is currently working on her Ph.D. at The University of Tennessee with Dr. Colin Sumrall. While getting her undergraduate degree in geology at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania, she fell in love with all things echinoderm (modern sea stars and sea urchins). Her undergraduate research focused on how ocean acidification due to climate change would affect sea urchin taphonomy (how their skeletons break apart after they die). After starting her Master’s degree, that research shifted to understanding the evolutionary history of arguably the craziest group of extinct echinoderms: the paracrinoids. Now that she has started her Ph.D., she is hoping to keep working with extinct echinoderms, but is also interested in looking into what elements are incorporated into sea urchin skeletons and what she can learn about how echinoderms build their skeletons! When Maggie isn’t doing research, she loves to do outreach and show her community that science is fun and accessible to everyone, she volunteers at the local museum, does school visits, and has worked with Darwin Day at the University of Tennessee to share evolutionary science with the campus and community. In her free time, Maggie likes to go hiking, kayaking, read spy novels, and hang out with her cat! Read Maggie’s posts.