Lab PI: Lisa Patrick Bentley
Lisa joined the Department of Biology at SSU in 2016. She received her Ph.D. at Texas Tech University where she studied the ecophysiology of desert plants in Texas, Arizona and California. As a post-doc, she led projects scaling plant form and function in the tropics. She now mostly focuses on using terrestrial laser scanning approaches to quantify fuel loads, examine forest structure change after wildfire and model future wildfire behavior.
Current Graduate Students:
Alexander Flores
Prior to joining the Bentley Lab, Alexander received a Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry and Natural Resources from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. He is interested in forest health and root disease pathosystems. His project studies the spatial distribution of alpine and coniferous forests in the Sierra Nevadas.
Dawson Bell
Dawson received his Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Science and Management at UC Davis where he got involved in fire ecology research throughout the Sierra Nevada. More recently, he has been working in environmental science education in Western Washington. As a graduate student with the Bentley Lab, Dawson is interested in studying the effects of fire severity on forest structure and regrowth. Outside the lab, he enjoys swimming, board games, and petting strangers’ dogs.
Randi Carter
Randi received their Bachelor of Science in Biology at California State University, Los Angeles. Prior to joining the Bentley lab, they worked as an ecological restoration technician, invasive species specialist, and member of NH conservation corps. They is interested in studying the effect of fire on canopy structural complexity. When not hard at work, you can find Randi biking around Rohnert Park, or working on various art projects.
Alex Martin
Before joining the Bentley Lab, Alex worked as an ecological restoration technician, certified arborist, environmental educator, and forestry technician. They graduated from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon with a B.A. in Biology. They are interested in forest health and management and are working on utilizing remote sensing techniques to better understand the dynamics of the introduced forest pathogen Phytophthora ramorum, cause of sudden oak death, in California forests. In their free time, Alex enjoys riding bikes, reading, and spending time with their dog, Nikka.
Current Undergraduate Students
Shelby Anderson
Francisco Elias
Emilio Orozco
Research Assistants
Elliott Smeds
Karsten Steinhorst
Former Graduate Students
Zane Cooper (2022)
Alanna Post (2022)
Paul Bacchi (2021)
Brieanne Forbes (2021)
Paris Krause (2021)
Cory O’Gorman (2020)
Manuel Hernandez (2020)
Megan Gaitan (2019)
Former Undergraduate Students
Sarah Arroyo-Chavez
Alex Barajas-Ritchie
Lauryn Calderon
Kristi Faro
Renzo Grimaldi
Jolene Markarian
Karishma Patel
Danielle Phillipi
Monica Wahl
Lauren Webster