Staff
Ashley Carreiro
Ashley joined the lab in January 2020 as a technician, and in January of 2021 became a Master's student. After completing her M.S. at FAU Harbor Branch in December 2023, Ashley has become our lead lab manager. She received a B.S. in Biology with a concentration in Marine Biology from Florida State University. As a tech, Ashley has assisted with samples from the Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas to better characterize population connectivity throughout the Florida Reef Tract and Gulf of Mexico and also analyzed 3D models to better assess the impacts of stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) on corals in Southeast Florida. As a graduate student, Ashley explored the relationship between nutrients and SCTLD. Prior to joining the lab, she worked as the science coordinator at Marine Conservation Philippines where she led the long-term monitoring project of coral reefs used to assist in MPA management decisions in Negros Oriental. She also did an extensive amount of technical diving in the Philippines assessing the feasibility of monitoring mesophotic reefs.
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Gabrielle Pantoni
Gabby Pantoni joined the lab in March 2021 as a coral research technician and in January 2022 became a master's student. Her thesis research focused on assessing survivorship and growth of corals outplanted in 2021 as a part of the large-scale collaborative Restoration Team Trials study. As a student, Gabby was a graduate teaching assistant for Harbor Branch Semester by the Sea students, and she was awarded an Indian River Lagoon Graduate Research Fellowship to conduct a coral transplanting study to expand coral restoration on St. Lucie Reef. She is continuing to monitor these transplants as a technician after completing her M.S. in Biology in May 2024. Prior to joining the lab, she graduated from the University of Rhode Island in May 2020 with a BS in Marine Biology. In 2019 she was a RI C-AIM Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow working with Dr Carol Thornber and Dr. Lindsay Green-Gavrielidis to study benthic community ecology of kelps and rockweeds throughout Narragansett Bay. In 2018, she studied abroad for a semester at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS), where she began research diving and conducting coral reef research
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Graduate Students
Ryan is a Ph.D. Student who completed his Master's in the lab in July 2019. Ryan’s thesis research focused on the coral species Montastraea cavernosa at several sites within two marine reserves on the Belize Barrier Reef. He used microsatellite markers and next-generation sequencing to examine how M. cavernosa populations and their assemblages of endosymbiotic algae (family Symbiodiniaceae) varied across a gradient from shallow to mesophotic depths. His doctoral research will expand the scale and scope of investigations into reef connectivity, including multiple coral and sponge species in Florida and the NW Gulf of Mexico. Ryan has been named a FAU Presidential Fellow and received a PADI grant to support his research. He earned a B.S. in Biological Sciences from Florida State University and worked as a researcher at NOAA’s Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary prior to joining the Voss Lab. While at FGBNMS he coordinated offshore field logistics for scientific diving missions and Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) expeditions. He also ran quarterly long-term monitoring water quality sampling cruises and maintained long-term water quality sampling instrumentation.
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Allie Klein is a Ph.D. Student who recently completed her Master’s in the lab in 2022. Her Master’s Thesis focused on the coral species Orbicella faveolata and its variable susceptibility to stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD). She used 2bRAD genotyping to determine if intraspecific disease susceptibility had an underlying genetic link. Allie’s doctoral research will pivot to another coral reef stressor, thermal tolerance. In partnership with University of Hawaii’s Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB), Allie with will be working with the ToBo Lab and the Reef Resilience Lab to identify thermally resilient coral candidates best suited for large scale outplanting. Allie has received a Women Diver's Hall of Fame Technical Dive Training Grant to advance her diving certification allowing her to become a key member of our lab’s mesophotic technical diving team. Prior to joining the Voss Lab, she received a B.S. in Marine Biology and a B.A. in Environmental Chemistry with a minor in Sustainability from Roger Williams University. Throughout her four years at RWU, Allie was an outstanding research student in Dr. Koty Sharp's Lab and an INBRE-SURF fellow in both 2018 and 2019. Her senior thesis research focused on characterizing and assessing dynamics in the microbiome of the northern star coral, Astrangia poculata.
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Milena Nesic
Milena joined the Voss Lab in June 2023 as a Coral Research Technician prior to beginning her Marine Science & Oceanography Master’s program in the Fall. She obtained her B.S. in Biology from the University of South Florida in 2022. During her undergrad, Milena’s honors thesis explored whether the presence of local wildlife influenced potential differences among soil bacterial communities. Following her graduation from USF, she embarked on a Dual Program internship at Mote's Elizabeth Moore International Center for Coral Reef Research and Restoration, during which time she participated in both Coral Restoration and the Coral Health & Disease programs. Under the tutelage of her mentors, one of whom included the OG Voss Lab alumna Dr. Courtney Klepac, Milena gained experience in coral reproduction and husbandry as well as foundational molecular biology techniques involved in coral DNA extraction. Her thesis research continues part of the Restoration Team Trials study, implementing ITS2 genotyping to assess shifts in coral-algal symbiont community assemblages across time and experimental restoration sites among three outplanted coral species. Moreover, Milena plans to analyze whether these symbiont assemblages were affected by thermal stress and bleaching in 2023.
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Erin Tharp
Erin joined the Voss Lab as a Ph.D. Student in the Integrative Biology program in August 2024. She earned her Master's in Conservation and Restoration Science at UC Irvine in 2024, where she collaborated with NOAA to enhance out planting strategies for White Abalone restoration in Southern California using Underwater Information Systems. Erin also contributed to reef pathogenic disease research in Joleah Lamb's HOPE Lab. She holds a B.S. in Environmental Studies with a minor in Marine Science from the University of Southern California , where she obtained her scientific diver certification. As a 2021 NSF REU student at the USC Wrigley Center, Erin researched the population, habitat preference, and seasonality of sea cucumbers off of Catalina Island. Additionally, Erin was a member of the USC Women’s Water Polo team, which won a National Championship. For her Ph.D. thesis, Erin plans to focus on coral reef ecology, particularly fish populations with Marine Protected Areas.
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Olivia Faris
Olivia joined the Voss Lab as a Master’s student in the Biology program in August 2024. She obtained her B.S. in Biology with minors in Environmental Science and Anthropology from Wake Forest University in 2024. During her undergraduate studies, Olivia worked in the Berry Lab, investigating the impacts of multi-year drought on longleaf pine trees in North Carolina. In the summer of 2023, Olivia participated in the NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates program at Shannon Point Marine Center, where she was certified as an AAUS diver and studied ecosystem recovery in the San Juan Islands a decade after a significant Sea Star wasting Disease outbreak. Additionally, she studied abroad at the University of South Wales in Australia, taking graduate-level courses in marine science. Olivia is eager to develop a Master's project on coral ecophysiology and effects of climate change on coral reef health.
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