Urban Forestry Intern
City of Pittsburgh, Department of Public Works – Forestry Division · Pittsburgh, PA
May, 2026 · Present
Inventory 60–80 street trees per field day in ArcGIS Field Maps, recording species, DBH, condition class, conflicts, and maintenance priority for the citywide tree database.
Flagged 140+ high-risk trees (deadwood, root heave, co-dominant stems) for arborist review; 38 were scheduled for removal or crown reduction within the season.
Ran i-Tree Eco summaries for 4 neighborhoods, quantifying stormwater interception and carbon storage to support the 2027 canopy equity planting plan.
Coordinated with volunteer groups to plant and mulch 220 bare-root and B&B trees; logged survival checks at 30 and 90 days.
Drafted resident-facing notices and answered 311 tree requests by phone and email, cutting the open-ticket backlog in two wards by 25%.
Seasonal Field Technician
Tree Pittsburgh (nonprofit) · Pittsburgh, PA
Jun, 2025 · Aug, 2025
Supported the nursery team in potting, watering, and grading 3,000+ native seedlings for community giveaways and riparian buffer projects.
Led Saturday volunteer crews of 10–25 people on planting days; trained volunteers on proper planting depth, staking, and root-flare exposure.
Collected pest and disease observations (spotted lanternfly, beech leaf disease, emerald ash borer) and reported them to the Penn State Extension tracker.
Maintained hand tools, pruning saws, and the water truck log; zero safety incidents across the season.
Research Assistant
Forest Ecology Lab, Penn State University · University Park, PA
Sep, 2024 · Apr, 2025
Measured canopy cover with spherical densiometers and hemispherical photography on 24 permanent plots in Rothrock State Forest.
Cleaned and analyzed 3 years of plot data in R (dplyr, ggplot2), producing figures used in a graduate thesis on oak regeneration.
Entered and QA-checked 5,000+ field records into the lab database with under 1% error rate on audit.