Stefanie is a Ph.D. candidate in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Pathways Biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She received her M.S. and B.A. from Clark University, where she studied the population genetics of freshwater pearl mussels (Margaritifera margaritifera) in central and western Massachusetts. She is passionate about environmental conservation and endangered species protection, with emphasis on aquatic ecosystems and freshwater mussel ecology.