I am a Ph.D. student in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona. I am co-advised by Judith Bronstein and Travis Huxman. I am interested in the thermal ecology of mutualism, an interaction among species from which all benefit. Currently, I am exploring how thermal ecology plays a role in the interaction between the fishhook barrel cactus and its ant defenders at the Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill in Tucson, Arizona.