Sara Meenan

Sarah Meenan
Biology Major
City College Fellow

smeenan000@citymail.cuny.edu

Sarah Meenan is pursuing a B.S. in biology, with a focus on ecology and conservation. Originally a visual arts student, Sarah was inspired by a conservation biology course that sparked an enduring interest in wildlife preservation. She enrolled at CCNY to complete her degree in biology, and in January of 2017, joined Dr. Anderson's lab where she is learning research methods in biogeography. During the spring of 2017, Sarah collaborated on a project using ecological niche models to predict how the geographical distribution of the olinguito (an Andean cloud forest mammal) will shift as a result of climate change and deforestation. Sarah spent the summer of 2017 participating in an NSF funded internship at the New York Botanical Garden and the Missouri Botanical Garden, where she studied plant systematics and diversity. She became versed in field identification and built phylogenetic trees based on chloroplast DNA. During the 2017 fall semester, Sarah will continue working as part of Dr. Anderson's team, building species distribution models and developing conservation assessments for Heteromys australis and H. teleus, two species of South American spiny pocket mice.

Sarah aspires to a career in research relevant to wildlife conservation and to educate others about the importance of maintaining functional ecosystems for human wellbeing and biodiversity preservation.