Elsie Cecilia Carrillo

I am a Doerr School of Sustainability Postdoctoral Fellow. I study the adaptations that facilitate a semi-aquatic lifestyle using garter snakes as a model organism. For my postdoctoral work, I am investigating the diving physiology and foraging ecology of valley garter snakes on Staten Island Preserve with a conservation lens. As part of my methodology, I will use biologgers to better understand the dive response of these cryptic predators. As a prior middle school science teacher with a passion for mentoring, I find purpose in providing opportunities to students to develop their scientific identities through research experiences. Through my work, I aim to highlight a vertebrate group that is often overlooked due to ophidiophobia, or fear of snakes, to be appreciated and ultimately conserved.