2024 Joseph E. and Robin C. Hightower Award Winner, Mikiah Carver-McGinn

September 26, 2024

Mikiah is a 3rd year PhD candidate majoring in Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology in the Department of Applied Ecology.  She is working on a large-scale interdisciplinary project investigating the influence of urbanization on white-tailed deer movement, behavior, resource selection, and mortality risk.  Her project involves faculty, staff, and students across multiple institutions and agencies (NCWRC, NC Zoo, NC Museum, USGS) and North Carolina State University colleges (CALS, CNR, COS, CVM, COEn).  Mikiah leads the analyses of multiple spatial datasets to understand animal movement in response to urbanization, spatial variation in survival, and how factors interacting across multiple spatial scales affect population dynamics.  With a background in geography (B.S.) and wildlife conservation (M.S), her research interests are focused on animal movement ecology, landscape ecology, and conservation biology.

Mikiah will use the Hightower Award to support her travels to the 2024 AniMove Summer School at The Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Radolfzell, Germany.  This 2-week workshop will provide Mikiah with the opportunity to enhance her skills and knowledge linking earth observation data to animal movement ecology.  The workshop will focus on remote sensing, management and analyses of spatial data, animal space use and movement analyses, and visualization of movement and environmental data.  Further, the AniMove workshop will provide cutting-edge analytical techniques and the information obtained will aid Mikiah as she develops her dissertation chapters, analyzes the movement data, conveys the results to the sponsor and stakeholders, and advance her career as a wildlife-landscape ecologist.

After she graduates from North Carolina State University, Mikiah plans to pursue a career in wildlife and natural resource conservation. Specifically, she is interested in educating and inspiring communities to promote sustainable practices and improve conservation efforts for the benefit of both people and wildlife.

Congratulations Mikiah.

Text and photo provided by Dr. Chris DePerno