Staff & Interns

Staff

Dr. Julie Lockwood- Faculty Advisor

Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources

Director- Rutgers Climate and Energy Institute

Visit the Lockwood Lab Website to learn more about her work and research!

Dr. Tabby Fenn- Collections Manager

I am a New England native whose career choice in the field of Ecology was shaped by spending summers in the Adirondack Mountains and taking a gap year in India prior to college. Before becoming curator for the Zoology collections, I worked in several regions of the U.S. as an itinerant field biologist, an AmeriCorps member, a land steward, and a data manager. I’ve been interested in the fusion of art and science since careening between the two disciplines during my undergraduate studies. Through the collections, I sponsor practicum work for SEBS undergraduates, which encourages students to explore the art and science of specimen preservation. Most of my students are drawn from the Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources program, the (new!) Biodiversity Collections certificate or experiential learning coursework in Science Communication offered through the department of Human Ecology.

Interns

Rivka Schafer- Intern (Summer 2026)

I am a senior at SEBS majoring in Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources with a minor in Creative Expression and the Environment and a Certificate in Environmental Geomatics (GIS). Previously, I have worked as an ecological steward for the Rutgers Ecological Preserve, a geological technician for the Rutgers Geological Core Repository, a project manager for RAMADDA, and a GIS intern for NJDEP’s Urban and Community Forestry Department. I am also a professional photographer, check out my instagram @Falling for a Flash! After I graduate, I am hoping to get a job. Fun Fact: When working as a Zoo Crew intern, I designed and published the website where you are reading this!

Luca Sheldon- Intern (Summer 2026)

I am an intern for the Rutgers Zoological Collections this summer, mainly focused on the many bird specimens in the collection. I’m mostly moving teaching specimens, fixing identifications, and updating taxonomy. The past couple of springs, I have been the shorebird technician for the Delaware Bay Shorebird Project, monitoring and tagging migratory shorebirds on their way to the Arctic. At Rutgers, I am an incoming 3rd year undergraduate in EENR, interested in ornithology, ecology, and zoology.

Kaya Sukhdeo- Intern (Summer 2026)

I am working as a Zoocrew intern this summer helping curate the Rutgers zoological bone collection. I currently am participating in a lab conducting stable isotope analysis on orangutans. I am studying ecology at Rutgers with the long term goal of becoming a medical doctor.

Hannah Hornbeck- Lead Intern (Spring 2024-2026)

I began working for the Zoological Collections my sophomore year curating a long-term collection of fish from several South Jersey watersheds. I continued working through my senior year when I served as lead intern. At Rutgers, I also worked with two other research labs on insecticide resistance in German cockroaches, and the movement of summer flounder. I spent the summer of 2025 trapping bears for a survival study with the Pennsylvania Game Commission, which was super cool. I graduated from Rutgers in May 2026 and began work for the Memphis zoo tracking snakes in LA and MS.

Amelia Daniels- Intern (Spring 2026)

Biker, traveler, record lover, Mad Men fan and recent OCAD grad. Acting at the junction of aesthetics and purpose to save the world from bad design. Concept is the foundation of everything else.

Lillian MacDonald- Intern (Spring 2026)

My internship work with the collection was focused on designing and collecting content for an accessible website! I am graduating this spring and looking forward to an internship in Coastal bird conservation and observational studies, including bird banding and nest monitoring. I hope to be working closely with species conservation in the future.

Landon Miller- Intern (Spring 2026)

Hi, I’m Landon, a junior ecology major working at the Rutgers Zoological Collection. This past summer, I worked at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, focusing on arachnids. Working in collections is something truly special to me, as is conservation. I’m currently working on a senior thesis in conservation biology. I also run Model UN committees at the Institute for Domestic and International Affairs, where I’ve learned more about global sustainability concerns and ways to address them.

Sarah Keppler – Intern (Fall 2025 & Spring 2026)

I study Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources at Rutgers while also pursuing a minor in agroecology. I specifically want to focus my career on large predators and vertebrates. In the summer of 2026, I worked for the Pennsylvania Game Commission as a wildlife intern, getting to participate in research on many large game species for research. As well as a field technician for a project studying White Crowned Sparrows in Alaska. Very exciting work I have done, all helping me get one step closer to my dream career!

Allison Borkenhagen- Intern (Summer & Fall 2025)

I was an intern with the Rutgers Zoological Collection during the Summer and Fall 2025 semesters, and I spent my second half of that summer working with the American Museum of Natural History to maintain a portion of their expansive invertebrate collection. I am currently contributing to the ongoing documentation and removal of invasive plant species within New Jersey. I graduated from Rutgers in May of 2026, and hope to continue working with natural history collections in the future.

Gita Baskaran- Intern (Summer 2025)

I am a Landscape Architecture major who found the Rutgers Zoological Collections through a Visual Artist internship that gave me the opportunity to design and paint a mural on a specimen cabinet. I’m currently researching the relationship between built landscapes and our senses, and hope to continue this research until I graduate in May 2028. Eventually, I hope to design spaces beneficial for all living things and that help build a strong connection to the world around us.

Patricia Ranone- Intern (Fall 2024)

I am a 2026 graduate of the Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources major. Since my internship, I have participated in a summer internship at my local aquarium, Save The Bay Aquarium in Rhode Island! I worked as an aquarist and did handling, managing, catching, and releasing of different species. I caught 2 dogfish sharks, one of them still at the aquarium! Save the Bay works on catching and releasing of different marine and freshwater species and only exhibits native species from Rhode Island or non-native species that have been caught in Rhode Island.

Darian Torres- Intern (Fall 2024)

I worked for the Rutgers Zoological Collections as an intern during the 2024 fall semester, mostly cataloging, documenting, and digitizing the labels and data from a collection of mammals collected as part of an old class. Following my internship with the ZooCrew, I worked as part of Dr. Winfree’s pollination lab, pinning and barcoding hundreds of bee specimens until graduating. Once I graduated, I spent my time working for the Greater Newark Conservancy as an environmental educator, which was really fun but not something I wanted a career in. So now, after applying to many positions, I have successfully obtained a job working for the USDA as a PPQ technician.

Jacob DeRose- Intern (Fall 2023)

Since my internship at the Zoology Collections, I became a watershed ambassador for the NJ Watershed Ambassadors Program. We promote watershed stewardship by doing environmental presentations, collecting stream assessment data, and managing community events. This is a great position for people just graduating college and gives you experience in environmental education and field work, as well as allowing you to gain tons of outreach opportunities within both local groups as well as government agencies. I actually learned about this program from Rutgers EENR emails and Tabby helped encourage me to pursue the position as she worked with AmeriCorps before.

Daniel Turcios & Robert Criollo- Interns (Spring 2023)

A little background, both of us interned in the collections together (Daniel worked on the invertebrate collection while I (Robert) helped curate the herps, fish, and eggs). We both earned the Geomatics certificate and were in the same graduating class of ‘23. Following graduation, we both got hired to work as GIS Analysts for the NJ Endangered and Nongame Species Program. Initially we started off as temps but since then our contract was renewed by Conserve Wildlife Foundation so now we work for two groups!

(Left to Right: Daniel and Robert)

Sophia Perry- Intern (Spring 2023)

My most Zoo Crew relevant job was the seasonal internship I held with the USDA Wildlife Services branch my first summer out of college. I was tasked with monitoring endangered shorebird nesting sites and testing out nonlethal predator deterrents, which basically meant driving all over the state to dispense wolf urine near American Oystercatcher, Common Tern, and Black Skimmer nests to ward off coyotes and foxes. I learned even more about bird ID (especially egg and nest ID) and it was amazing to get to see the nests fledge and the families fly south at the end of the season. Since my internship with the USDA ended, I have bounced around a lot but am finally settled with the Mercer County Planning Department assisting with Open Space planning.

Aiden Dannenfalser- Intern (Fall 2022)

I spent the summer of 2023 interning at the Woodlands Wildlife Refuge in Hunterdon County as an Animal Caregiver. I created maps with GIS using patient data over several years, intended as a resource for future responses to cases. I have been volunteering with the Morris County Park Commission since April of last year. I started my time with them by spending the spring and summer checking on bird boxes at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum on a weekly basis and recording data. Since then, I have continued to volunteer with the Commission through events.

Samuel Schick- Intern (Fall 2022)

Since graduating from Rutgers with my bachelor’s in EENR, I was originally going to go for a PhD in animal physiology but switched gears and am now attending veterinary school at the University of Pennsylvania. With my degree, I hope to work as a veterinarian protecting the wildlife/agricultural interface to protect wild animals, livestock, as well as human health.