Early Career Professional Working Group

I am a Wildlife Biologist 1 at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Douglas, Alaska where I study wolves in Southeast Alaska. I received my BS in wildlife from University of Alaska Fairbanks and my MS in wildlife from Auburn University. I’ve spent the last 2 years of my position as a wildlife biologist setting up a couple of research projects, which includes exploring the dynamics between brown bears and wolves at moose carcasses. I’m interested in community ecology and species interactions, so it’s a good thing I’m part of the predator-prey research team!

I think it’s incredibly important for Early Career Professionals to communicate amongst each other, but also to make sure to engage with students and mid-late career professionals to facilitate the connections between each level. My primary intention for getting more involved with the working group is to make those connections and facilitate the needs of each group to further the wildlife field, making it more inclusive and accessible.

As a previous international masters student in Norway and former chair/past-chair of the SDWG I have a unique perspective of TWS’s internal functioning. My goal as the co-chair of the ECPWG is to develop ways to benefit ECP members through direct member benefits and supporting continued efforts to empower our members especially those from underrepresented/challenged backgrounds. I currently work for WRA, Inc in California as part of the wildlife and fisheries compliance monitoring team. This position puts me on the front line with regards to early career work in our field. It’s important to me that we focus on the fundamentals of ensuring our members are prepared for career positions that provide them the ability to sustain a high quality of life and advance in their careers. To do this I ask that every member engage with us to the degree to which you can afford so that together we evolve this profession.

I am a postdoctoral research scientist with Borderlands Research Institute at Sul Ross State University in Texas. I received my B.S. from University of Arizona and M.S. from the same institution studying gray fox ecology and rabies management. I defended my Ph.D. in October 2021 with a dissertation focused on spatial ecology of the endangered ocelot to inform road mitigation efforts. I started my first post-doc position in January 2022 where I lead research focused on carnivores and mentor graduate students.

I have been involved with The Wildlife Society since I was an undergraduate. I have been an active member of the Arizona and Texas state chapters as well as the Southwest Section and Women of Wildlife for the last decade. I have served on the communication boards of three different working groups during my graduate career. While I am new to the Early Career Professionals Working Group, I plan to bring my experience serving as chair of two different graduate student organizations to bear.

As a recently married step-mom with a partner who is also in the profession, I am familiar with many of the challenges facing young professionals in the wildlife field. I have a passion for helping my peers. I aim to promote and support diverse voices in TWS while providing a collaborative and productive environment for young professionals.

Courtney King recently began a PhD program at Michigan Tech University, and will be examining moose movements and spatial ecology on Isle Royale. She is interested in combining field approaches with remote sensing/geospatial analysis to better understand predator-prey interactions and how wildlife influence and are influenced by forest ecosystems. Courtney has been a TWS member since 2018, and has been an ECPWG board member since 2022. Outside of work and school, her interests include skiing, ice hockey, backpacking, and kayaking with a good book in hand!

My name is Levi Heffelfinger, and I am the Director of the North Texas Research Program and an Assistant Professor at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M University–Kingsville. I also serve on the TWS Early Career Professional Working Group board. I grew up in southern Arizona and earned degrees from the University of Arizona and the University of Nevada, Reno, where I studied mule deer spatial ecology and demographics in the Mojave National Preserve. I completed my Ph.D. at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute as the Boone & Crockett Fellow in Ungulate Research, focusing on how forage variability influences mule deer movement and performance, as well as the effects of early-life nutrition on white-tailed deer development. My current research centers on nutritional ecology and linking population processes to landscape variability across arid regions of the southwestern United States and southern Great Plains. I am based in Lubbock, Texas, and enjoy camping, hiking, wildlife photography, fishing and hunting.

Jessica Braunstein has been a member of TWS since 2015. Jessica received both her M.S. in Wildlife & Fisheries Science and Ph.D. in Natural Resources from the University of Tennessee. Her thesis research focused on American black bear spatial ecology and her dissertation research examined population dynamics of elk in western North Carolina. Jessica is currently a postdoctoral research associate at Tennessee Tech University examining waterfowl space use and survival. Prior to her current position, she worked as a biologist for the National Park Service and has experience working for a wildlife-focused non-profit and teaching at a post-secondary institution. In her free time, Jessica enjoys running, gardening and spending time outdoors near her home in the mountains of East Tennessee.