GCC Welcomes Four New Faculty Affiliates

Dr. Stacy Endriss

Entomology

Dr. Stacy Endriss and her lab adopt an eco-evolutionary approach to study the impacts of invasive species, particularly invasive plants and their management. Their research bridges applied and basic science, using laboratory models, common garden experiments, and extensive field surveys across decades and continents to address pressing management challenges. By examining how different selective pressures influence evolutionary trajectories between native and introduced plant ranges, they also contribute to fundamental ecological theory. Dr. Endriss prioritizes collaboration with practitioners and land managers to co-produce research that improves the effectiveness and ethics of invasive plant management.

Dr. Valentina Gomez Bahamón

Biological Sciences

Dr. Valentina Gómez-Bahamón's lab investigates how behavioral flexibility drives speciation and trait evolution across taxonomic and geographic scales. Her research focuses on understanding why some species thrive while others decline in response to environmental changes, aiming to reveal how evolutionary processes and ecological contexts predispose species to either extinction or success. She is also a volunteer member of SELVA: Research for Conservation in the Neotropics, contributing to conservation efforts in her home country of Colombia.

Dr. Erich Hester

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Dr. Erich Hester is a water resources engineer with expertise in civil engineering and ecology. Before transitioning to academia, he spent nearly a decade in the private sector working on river and wetland projects focused on ecological restoration, flood control, stormwater management, and pollutant mitigation in California and Washington State. His research group specializes in environmental hydraulics, studying how hydrology, hydraulics, and geomorphology influence ecological health and water quality in stream, river, wetland, and groundwater systems. Their work aims to improve restoration design, pollutant attenuation, watershed planning, and energy generation, with a recent focus on scaling site-level knowledge to broader watershed impacts. Hester's research also contributes to regional decision-making processes addressing issues like nutrient pollution in the Chesapeake Bay and the effects of climate change on migratory fish populations in the Columbia River Basin.

Dr. Tess Thompson

Biological Systems Engineering

Dr. Thompson’s research in stream and wetland restoration focuses on the role of vegetation in flow resistance and streambank erosion resistance, mitigating the impacts of urban development on stream systems, and predicting the onset and rate of streambank erosion. Her current research explores the impact of different stormwater regulations on stream channel stability. Results of this work showed that regulations focused on detaining a given volume of runoff do not protect streams against erosion following urban development.