SCSU Botany
McDonnell Lab

Hi! I'm Angela, an evolutionary biologist and botanist. I really like plants. I grew up in Juneau, WI where I became fascinated by the natural world through gardening, hiking, and foraging. After college, I had a job with a biotech company for a few years before I pursued a PhD in Oklahoma, where I did all kinds of stuff I really wanted to do like sequence DNA, collect plants, travel to new places, and analyze data. After grad school, I did postdoctoral appointments with Norm Wickett at the Chicago Botanic Garden where I worked on transcriptome and genome assembly in the Hawaiian endemic genus Schiedea as well as with Chris Martine at Bucknell University on the evolution of Australian Solanum and a rare plants in PA. In my free time, I hang out with my family (Kevin, Ash, and Jonas). I enjoy hiking, cooking, reading, gardening, making jewelry, painting, watching The Office, and traveling.

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I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at St Cloud State University in central MN. I am thrilled to be able to teach biology/botany courses, mentor biology undergraduate and masters students, direct the herbarium, and manage the teaching and research greenhouses. If you are a student on the hunt for research experience and/or a master's program, please reach out!