CV

92 publications · 9,484 citations · h-index 47 · 13 R packages · 631,000+ downloads
Publication and citation counts from Google Scholar; downloads from the RStudio CRAN mirror, as of November 2026.

These are highlights. A full CV is available on request by email. See also Publications, Software, and Teaching.

Positions

• 2024–present: Assistant Professor of Global Change, Department of Integrative Biology, University of South Florida St. Petersburg
• 2024: Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Connecticut. Species distribution models for poorly sampled species, and the velocity and direction of climate-driven range shifts.
• 2022–2024: Terrestrial sampling designer, BioSCape, NASA’s first biodiversity-focused field campaign. Led the selection of its terrestrial sites in South Africa’s Cape Floristic Region.
• 2021–2024: Postdoctoral Scholar, University at Buffalo. Remote sensing and Bayesian workflows to detect vegetation change (fire, drought, invasions, land clearing) for land managers in the Cape Floristic Region.
• 2020–2021: Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Connecticut. New global ecoregions based on plant distribution models, their conservation status, and projected changes.

Education

• Ph.D., Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, 2020
• M.S., Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Rice University, 2013
• B.S., Zoology, High Honors, Michigan State University, 2006
• Associate’s degree, Grand Rapids Community College, 2004

In the news

Selected media coverage of papers I’ve co-authored:

• Undiscovered tree species (PNAS, 2022): CNN, NBC News, Scientific American, CBC
• Cactus extinction risk under climate change (Nature Plants, 2022): New York Times, EcoWatch
• Fire, drought, and Amazonian biodiversity (Nature, 2021): Nature News & Views, Science News, Inside Climate News, Mongabay
• Global forest carbon potential (Nature, 2023): Science, Mongabay
• The underground network linking trees and microbes (Nature, 2019): Science, Newsweek
• Biodiversity in the hottest year on record (PNAS, 2025): El País, Buffalo News
• Early warnings of extreme heat for wildlife (Nature Climate Change, 2026): research briefing, Phys.org
• Forests losing their most important trees (Nature Plants, 2026): ScienceDaily, SciTechDaily
• Tree diversity facing unprecedented climates (PNAS, 2025): USF, Phys.org
• Global gaps in plant trait knowledge (New Phytologist, 2023): Phys.org, Australian Research Data Commons
• The commonness of rarity in plants (Science Advances, 2019): ScienceDaily, Futurity, Arizona Daily Star

Invited talks

• 2026: Plant traits: a brief introduction. University of The Bahamas.
• 2025: Reconciling functional and phylogenetic prioritizations using branch length transformations. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Purdue University.
• 2024: Biodiversity science in a time of crisis. University of South Florida; Arizona State University; Florida Gulf Coast University.
• 2023: Open Science principles for accelerating trait-based science across the Tree of Life. 15th NRF-SAEON GSN Indibano, Cape Town, South Africa.

Organized sessions and workshops

• 2026: Plant functional trait workshop, Grand Bahama, with the Bahamas Department of Forestry and students from the Bahamas and the US
• 2023: Plant Traits for All Ecologists (organized oral session) and The BIEN Database: Harnessing the Power of Botanical Big Data (workshop), Ecological Society of America, Portland, OR
• 2021: Bringing “parachute science” back to Earth to improve remote sensing of biodiversity for all (workshop), American Geophysical Union, New Orleans, LA
• 2017: Open data in the life sciences (organized session), OpenCon, Berlin
• 2017: Integrating and cleaning biodiversity data (organized session), International Biogeography Society, Tucson, AZ

Mentoring

I advise one postdoc and four Master’s students, and have served on the graduate committees of 13 other USF students. I have also mentored undergraduates from Rice University, Kenyon College, the University at Buffalo, Oberlin College, and the Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco. Current lab members are on the Maitner Lab website.

Professional service

• Founding member of the Open Traits Network; content editor since 2019
• Manuscript reviewer for 32 journals (69+ verified reviews), including Ecology Letters, Global Ecology and Biogeography, Ecography, and Journal of Ecology
• Grant reviewer, European Research Council
• Subject matter expert, NASA Space Apps Challenge (2023)