Meet the ecoNetworks Lab

Meet the team at the Research Lab

Lab Director

Ashkaan K. Fahimipour, PhD

Principal Investigator

afahimipour[at]fau[dot]edu

Ash is a theoretical ecologist in the Dept. of Biological Sciences and Center for Complex Systems at Florida Atlantic University. Before joining the faculty at FAU, he was a Natl. Academy of Sciences Natl. Research Council Fellow at NOAA + UC Santa Cruz; and held postdoctoral positions in the UC Davis Dept. of Computer Science and University of Oregon Inst. of Ecology & Evolution. He received his Ph.D. in Ecology from UC Riverside, and B.S. in Botany from the University of Florida. His work is motivated by a lifelong passion for helping animals.

Postdoctoral Scholars

Edita Folfas, PhD

Postdoctoral Scholar

efolfas[at]fau[dot]edu

Edita is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Dept. of Biological Sciences. Prior to joining FAU, she did a Ph.D. in the Dept. of Biology at UT Arlington. Her research focuses on species interactions and resource availability in shaping niche breadth and community structure. She is interested in how individual-level variation scales up to structure communities. Outside of work, she enjoys hanging out with friends, looking for birds, and card games.

Darien Satterfield, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

dsatterfield[at]fau[dot]edu

Darien is a Jumpstart Postdoctoral Fellow in the Dept. of Biological Sciences. She completed her Ph.D. in the Center for Population Biology at UC Davis. As a behavioral ecologist and evolutionary biologist, Darien studies collective behaviors like schooling, and macroevolutionary links between morphology and behavior in fishes. She is also committed to mentorship and breaking down barriers within science and academia.

PhD Students

Ana Arevalo Cardona

PhD Student

aarevalocard2023[at]fau[dot]edu

Ana is a Ph.D. student in Integrative Biology interested in conservation of marine organisms. Her background includes work in sea turtle monitoring, computational methods, and environmental education. Ana is particularly interested in ecosystem restoration and network science, and enjoys combining fieldwork with modeling to develop real-world solutions.

Stephen Hoover

PhD Candidate

shoover2016[at]fau[dot]edu

Stephen is a Ph.D. candidate in Complex Systems, studying alignment solutions for learning algorithms, with a focus on causal reasoning and reinforcement learning. He holds an M.S. degree in artificial intelligence and a bachelor’s in mathematics. His interdisciplinary background shapes his systems-level approach to biology, AI safety and complexity science.

Leela Johnson

PhD Candidate

leelajohnson2023[at]fau[dot]edu

Leela is a Ph.D. candidate in Integrative Biology, focusing on how information spreads through animal social networks and influences collective behavior. She’s passionate about blending fieldwork with tools from complex systems, and she's especially interested in sharing these insights. Outside of research, Leela enjoys painting, hiking, and good tea.

Meghan White

PhD Student

meghanwhite2024[at]fau[dot]edu

Meghan is a Ph.D. student in Integrative Biology, interested in ecological networks. Her focus is to understand how scales of organismal space use drive patterns in complex ecosystems. She aims to apply complex system tools to ecological questions, and to communicate them through outreach at the Gumbo Limbo nature Center.