Field Inclusive Names 2025 Research Grant Recipients

February 26, 2025 | FIELD INCLUSIVE

For immediate release

Contact: Field Inclusive; info@fieldinclusive.org

Samantha Davies (she/her), Kassandra Townsend (she/her), Amanda Potts (she/her), Ponchanok Weeriyanun (she/they), Isabel Pen (she/her), and Alexis Flores (she/they) are the recipients of a 2025 Field Inclusive (FI) Research Grant.

These research grants, in the amounts of $500, helps to support applicants who participate in natural science field work. Grants can be used towards equipment purchases, field housing, transportation, or technician salary. This year’s grants were sponsored by Wake Audubon Society ($1000) Tracy Aviary ($500), New Hope Bird Alliance ($500), Conservation Nation ($500), and an anonymous individual on behalf of Field Inclusive ($500); because of these generous sponsors, FI is able to distribute 6 awards in total.

Samantha Davies is a first-year PhD student at Cornell University in the department of Biological and Environmental Engineering. Her research here is focused on mercury as a contaminant in freshwater environments. The project she is beginning to work on is attempting to relate methane emissions from freshwaters to the methylation of mercury (the process that causes mercury to become a harmful neurotoxin). She expects to create a model from my findings that will allow for the concentrations of MeHg to be determined from the more common and less expensive measurement of methane. Ideally, her findings will aid in the co-management of the two contaminants in temperate freshwaters globally.

Samantha Davies

Kassandra Townsend is an enrolled member of the Acoma Pueblo tribe, and is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Idaho. She has been inspired by other Indigenous professionals to pursue a career in wildlife biology that utilizes traditional ecological knowledge within research. In collaboration with HawkWatch International, she is working on their Following Forest Owls project in the Chiricahua mountains in Southeastern Arizona on multiple forest owl species. Her dissertation work focuses on understanding microclimates within tree cavities, the distribution of forest owls, and how climate change may impact these populations within her study site.

Kassandra Townsend

Amanda Potts is a third year PhD student at Rice University in Houston, Texas. She is primarily interested in how amphibians are adapting to arid environments as climate change and habitat loss are causing great decline in their populations. Her current research looks at how three different lineages have adapted similar morphologies to persist on a young geologic landmass in New Mexico. In the future, she hopes to use her knowledge and experience not only to mentor students in herpetological research but also to expose minority grade school students to the many career paths of one earning a degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Being awarded this grant will aid in purchasing some much needed equipment to perform field experiments.

Amanda Potts

Ponchanok Weeriyanun was born in Phuket, a small island in southern Thailand. She has always been fascinated by the ocean, especially coral reefs, as this ecosystem supports many lives in my hometown. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Prince of Songkhla University. Her thesis focused on ecological surveys of coral reefs around Phuket Island. In 2020, she graduated from the International Marine and Biological Resources (IMBRSea) program at Ghent University where she conducted research on the eco-physiological thermal stress responses of adult corals in the Great Barrier Reef. Currently, she is in my third year of my PhD at Old Dominion University, where she studies variations in heat tolerance among shallow-water coral species. The award will support her fieldwork in American Samoa, covering expenses such as a rental car, housing, airfare, and SCUBA gear. Her research in American Samoa focuses on identifying thermally tolerant corals from different populations around the island, out-planting them in an in-situ common garden, and assessing their ability to maintain thermotolerance and growth after 6–12 months.

Ponchanok Weeriyanun

Isabel Pen is a queer Latina marine biologist pursuing a PhD at the Ohio State University. She earned a BS in Biology in her hometown at the University of Houston and a Master’s in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Kansas. Her dissertation work focuses on resolving the identity of tiny species of sea anemones in the genus Bunodeopsis found in seagrass beds all over the Caribbean. Through her work, Isabel hopes to incorporate ecology and biogeography into the systematics of sea anemones and increase the awareness of marine invertebrates through public outreach.

Isabel Pen

Alexis Flores is currently a third-year Ph.D. candidate in the Schell Lab at U.C. Berkeley. Her research uses a One Health approach for understanding social-ecological drivers of urban bat diversity and
distribution in the San Francisco Bay Area. She also incorporates her background in public health to
examine disease dynamics, human-wildlife interactions, and environmental (in)justice in urban systems.

Alexis Flores

“All six of our applicants were compelling, set the bar high, and fit the mission and goals of Field Inclusive perfectly,” says Lauren D. Pharr, co-founder and Field Inclusive CFO. “We are looking forward to highlighting more about their work, and offering these grants to more applicants in the near future.”

Field Inclusive plans to open the next call for applications in October of 2025.