About Us


Meet the team behind the Microplastics in Tampa Bay project at Eckerd College:

Dr. Shannon Gowans, Professor of Marine Science and Biology

Dr. Shannon Gowans earned her bachelor’s degree and her Ph.D. from Dalhousie University. She focuses mainly on the evolution of social organization in cetaceans.



Dr. Amy Siuda, Assistant Professor of Marine Science

Dr. Amy Siuda earned her Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from the University of Connecticut. She specializes in a variety of aspects within the marine plankton ecology field.



Lead Student Interns:

Nicole Vandale

Nicole (2018 - present) is a junior at Eckerd college majoring in marine science (biology track) and minoring in Spanish. As an intern for this project, Nicole focuses on managing interns and volunteers, data processing and analysis, and high frequency sampling.



Sabrina Sorace

Sabrina (2017 - present), a senior at Eckerd, processes and analyzes manatee gut samples for plastics bigger than a millimeter. The manatees are all from Tampa Bay.



Mary Claire Fibbe

On the microplastic team, Mary Claire (2018 - present), a senior, investigates the microplastics that are ingested by copepods in Tampa Bay. She is also seeing if there are different grazing selectivity between copepods when exposed to virgin and non virgin plastics.



Casey Broecker

Casey (2019 - present), a junior at Eckerd, processes seagrass samples and manatee gut samples. She also assists with teaching the interns the proper research techniques for the project.

Joedeelee Rigdon

Joedeelee (2018 - present) is a senior and contributes to all aspects of the microplastic research project with the exception of the copepods.

Shane Felde

Shane (2017 - present) is a senior who is studying Marine Biology. He fell in love with this project from the beginning and has been working very closely with Dr. Siuda to develop and implement the procedures/protocols for this research project.

Present Student Interns: Past Student Interns:

  • Emma O'Brien (2018 - present)

  • Michael Doraz (2018 - present)

  • Noah Lynn (2019 - present)

  • Karsen Henwood (2020 - present)

  • Faith Guinn (2020 - present)

  • Veronica Soler (2020 - present)

  • Mark Yamene (2018 - 2019)

  • Shannon Grace Day (2018 - 2020)

  • Kara McVeigh (2019 - 2020)

  • Tiffany Croucher (2018 -2019)

  • Jennifer Necker (2017 - 2019)

  • McKenzie Munguai (2017 - 2019)

  • Maddie Vargo (2017 - 2019)

  • Anna Lindquist (2019 - 2019)

  • Ryan Carlson (Summer 2019)

  • Amelia Kalagher (2017 - 2018)

  • Delphine Carroll (2017 - 2018)

  • Amy Rothenhoefer (2017 - 2018)

  • Ashley Finster (Summer 2018)

  • Abbey Rosato (2017 - 2018)

  • Sarah Buckeridge (2017 - 2018)

  • Aleks Cison (2019 - 2020)

  • Bella Iannotta (2019 - 2019)

Freshman Researchers

  • Julia Gallagher (2017 - 2018)

  • Sara Erzini (2017 - 2018)

  • Jennifer Necker (2017 - 2019)

  • Mlana Lore (2017 - 2018)

  • Nicole Vandale (2018 - present)

  • Michael Doraz (2018 - 2019)

  • Bostony Braoudakis (2018 - 2019)

  • Chloe Hill (2018 - 2019)

  • Hayley Haley McHugh (2018 - 2019)

  • Hudson Filas (2019 - 2020)

  • Aiden Rooney (2019 - 2020)

  • Kelli Alfrod (2019 - 2020)

  • Olivia Barkley (2019 - 2020)

  • Sophia Bickerton (2019 - 2020)

  • Jane Downer (2019 - 2020)

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