Katherine is a conservation ecologist with a passion for landscape scale conservation of threatened arboreal mammals. Working within the Lindenmayer lab, her PhD research focusses on holistic restoration of Victoria’s Central Highlands region for the federally endangered Southern Greater Glider (Petauroides volans) and vulnerable Yellow-bellied Glider (Petaurus australis). Specifically, her research will investigate:

1. The efficacy of two methods of artificial hollow supplementation in areas where historic bushfire and inappropriate logging have resulted in a paucity of natural hollows, and
2. Whether the deployment of artificial hollows in regenerating, hollow-deficient forests facilitates recolonisation by either species.

Prior to commencing her PhD at ANU in 2024, Katherine worked in the Central Highlands for 7 years as an active member of Wildlife of the Central Highlands (WOTCH, https://www.wotch.org.au/), a citizen science group dedicated to protecting Victoria’s native forests and wildlife from logging through research, community engagement and advocacy. She has a first class honours from La Trobe University in Melbourne, where she investigated the spatiotemporal drivers of chainsaw-hollow occupancy by Krefft’s Glider (Petaurus notatus) in regenerating, hollow-depleted forests. Katherine is also particularly interested in Australian Rangeland ecology and has worked in various roles researching threatened species in remote South Australia, New South Wales and Western Queensland.