Biography

Alexis Garretson is a Doctoral Candidate at the Tufts University and The Jackson Laboratory joint program in Mammalian Genetics and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. Her Ph.D. research in the Dumont Lab focuses on using genetically diverse mouse strains to investigate the genetic causes and evolutionary consequences of mutation rate variation in populations, particularly as it relates to reproduction and fitness. She previously completed a M.S. degree in Evolutionary Biology at George Mason University with Dr. Rebecca Forkner using citizen science data and herbarium specimens to investigate the impacts of climate change on the fall color change in the Northeast US.

She advocates for open data as an Open Biodiversity Data Ambassador with the Global Biodiversity Information Facilities and as a data specialist with Anecdata.org. Alexis is also involved in bioinformatics and data science education as an instructor with The Carpentries and through developing university data science curricula.

Check out my observations and identifications on iNaturalist

Download my CV.

Interests

  • Bioinformatics
  • Genomics
  • Data Science

Education

  • PhD Genetics, Mammalian Genetics, in progress

    Tufts University & Jackson Laboratory

  • MS Biology, Evolutionary Biology, 2020

    George Mason University

  • BS Biology, Environmental and Conservation Biology, 2018

    George Mason University

Recent Publications

Translational Science Education Through Citizen Science

Guided by the six elements of Translational Ecology (TE; i.e., decision-framing, collaboration, engagement, commitment, process, and communication), we showcase the first explicit example of a Translational Science Education (TSE) effort in the coastal redwood ecosystem of Humboldt County, CA.

In the Media

MDI Biological Lab tracing at-home COVID test results

News feature of our Anecdata.org project tracking at-home COVID tests

Tufts Institute of the Environment Fellowship

I was selected as a summer fellow with TIE!

Contact

  • Bar Harbor, ME