LAB MEMBERS

Eric T. Hileman (He/Him), Principle Investigator

I am an assistant professor in the Wildlife and Fisheries Resources program at West Virginia University and the research advisor and lead for the Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake SAFE program. Before my current appointment, I was an assistant research professor in the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture at Mississippi State University. Prior to this, I was a Mendenhall research fellow at the USGS Fort Collins Science Center working in the Brown Treesnake Laboratory in Guam, an adjunct graduate faculty at Grand Valley State University, and a postdoctoral fellow at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario.

Curriculum vitae

Kaden Hughes, M.S. Student

Coming soon!

Como

Dare Scott (They/Them), M.S. Student

Dare received their BS in Fisheries and Wildlife from the University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. During their undergraduate program, Dare contributed to diamondback terrapin research in the Maerz Lab, focusing on describing local reproductive parameters of diamondback terrapins on the Georgia coast. Dare has since worked with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission as a biological intern and lead a salamander field crew for the U.S. Geological Survey SE Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative. They are primarily interested in applied conservation research for declining species. Dare’s MS research at WVU will examine eastern massasauga overwintering habitat and phenology to support Michigan Department of Natural Resources conservation planning.

Matthew Klein (He/Him), Ph.D. Student

Matthew received his B.S. in fisheries and wildlife from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and his M.Sc. in wildlife and fisheries resources from West Virginia University. After receiving his bachelor’s degree, he worked as a conservation biologist for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission handling furbearer harvest data, mountain lion camera trap and sighting reports, and supporting waterfowl banding and data collection. Matthew began at West Virginia University as a master’s student in 2024, where he studied population dynamics and population viability of the eastern massasauga rattlesnake. Matthew has continued his work on eastern massasaugas as a Ph.D. student, studying population occupancy and response to habitat restoration, prevalence of inbreeding and its effects on survival and reproductive frequency, and assessing the feasibility of improved connectivity between geographically isolated populations. Matthew is broadly interested in population modeling and applying quantitative methods to understand wildlife populations and inform their management, especially in at-risk species or populations.

Kurtis Boccabello, B.S. Student

Kurtis is a senior in the BS Wildlife and Fisheries Resources program at West Virginia University. In his undergraduate program, Kurtis assists with genetic identification of invasive carp in Dr. Amy Welsh’s lab and is the president of the West Virginia Herpetology club. He has worked as a bat survey technician at Alliance Consulting with federally listed bat species in West Virginia and Illinois. Kurtis wants to gear his future graduate work toward aiding sensitive herpetofauna species imperiled by human activity. He is currently assisting Dare Scott, M.S. student at WVU, with their research on eastern massasauga overwintering habitats.

James N. Helferich, M.S.

Thesis: Of changing climate and habitat: range-wide individual growth and local patterns of phenology and landscape use in a threatened pit-viper. James is currently a PhD student in Dr. Lisanne Petracca's lab at Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

Past Lab Members