Jessica L. O'Connell - Assistant Professor
Colorado State University
Jessica is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability at Colorado State University. Her research is centered on landscape ecology and relies on interdisciplinary methods that span the fields of ecology, remote sensing, geospatial informatics, and data science. Her goals are to create research products that facilitate landscape-scale ecosystem conservation. Jessica is a proponent of the open-science philosophy and strives to conduct research that reduces the barriers to accessing scientific results and products. She is also a proponent of long-term ecological research and serves as a Co-PI on the Georgia Coastal Ecosystems Long-Term Ecological Research Project (GCE-LTER).
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Colorado State University
Jessica is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability at Colorado State University. Her research is centered on landscape ecology and relies on interdisciplinary methods that span the fields of ecology, remote sensing, geospatial informatics, and data science. Her goals are to create research products that facilitate landscape-scale ecosystem conservation. Jessica is a proponent of the open-science philosophy and strives to conduct research that reduces the barriers to accessing scientific results and products. She is also a proponent of long-term ecological research and serves as a Co-PI on the Georgia Coastal Ecosystems Long-Term Ecological Research Project (GCE-LTER).
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Megan Podolinsky - PhD Candidate
CSU Vice President for Research Graduate Fellow
SoGES Diana Wall Sustainability Leadership Fellow
Colorado State University
Megan Podolinsky is interested in ecosystem dynamics across landscapes, especially restored wetlands and how different land use practices can potentially mitigate the effects of climate change. She joined the O'Connell Landscape modeling lab in June of 2022. Prior to that, Megan worked for over a decade for various government agencies including the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and the National Park Service, as well as in the private sector, on wetland delineations and permitting for a small environmental consulting firm. She earned both a B.S. in Environmental Science and a B.A. in Hispanic Studies from Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana in 2012. Megan has been enjoying her summer field season sampling playa wetlands on Conservation Reserve Program land in western Kansas.
Alan Cai - PhD Student
Francis Clark Soil Biology Scholar
Colorado State University
Alan is interested in the conservation and restoration of aquatic ecosystems. He joined the Landscape Modeling lab in Spring 2024 as a Watershed Sciences PhD student, and studies tidal marsh dynamics and resilience. He has a M.S. degree in Environmental Systems from the University of California, Merced, as well as a B.S. in Environmental Sciences and a B.A. in Atmospheric Science from UC Berkeley. Previously, he has worked on wet meadow restoration monitoring in California, and researched the ecological management of Western U.S. rivers. He is excited to develop new insights about tidal marsh carbon cycling, flooding dynamics, and phenology.
Maggie Church - PhD Student
North American Wetlands and Migratory Waterbird Graduate Fellow
SoGES Diana Wall Sustainability Leadership Fellow
Colorado State University
Maggie Church is passionate about combining her love of nature and data science to inform land management decisions. She is interested in using remotely sensed data to study habitat dynamics. Before joining the O’Connell Landscape Modeling Lab, she worked as a lab assistant in the Sibold Biogeography lab at Colorado State University where she studied the effects of forest disturbance and regeneration. Prior to that, she served as a data analyst at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Maggie earned her B.S. in Economics and Statistics from the University of Pittsburgh in 2017. She is currently collaborating with Ducks Unlimited on a project within the lab to estimate surface water area in Prairie Pothole wetlands.
Ajay Devda - PhD Student
Thomas A Jones Interdisciplinary Research Graduate Fellow
Colorado State University
Co-advised with Dr. Tamee Albrecht
Ajay is interested in transboundary wetland management, combining ecosystem processes and policies to develop open-source models and devise climate-informed solutions. He joined the Landscape Modeling Lab at CSU as a Watershed Sciences PhD student in Fall 2024. Prior to joining the CSU, he worked at the Centre for Climate Studies at IIT Bombay, India. Ajay holds a Master's in Society and Culture from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Gandhinagar, India, where he also worked with the Centre for Sustainable Development on projects addressing climate change and drinking water access in India. His interdisciplinary background, spanning engineering and social sciences, allows him to connect scientific advancements with policy measures for climate and wetland science. Ajay's current research explores biophysical processes in wetlands using remote sensing, fieldwork, and open-source data-supported modeling.
Megan Hoover– Undergraduate Student
McNair Scholar
Colorado State University
Megan is a senior in the Ecosystem Science and Sustainability program at Colorado State University, where she is also pursuing a minor in Watershed Science. Growing up in West Michigan, she developed a deep appreciation for freshwater ecosystems, which sparked her interdisciplinary interests in wetland ecology, water quality, environmental policy, and sustainable cities. Before joining the Landscape Modeling Lab in 2025, Megan worked several seasons with Larimer County’s Department of Natural Resources as a land stewardship worker. There, she helped restore natural landscapes and manage noxious weeds across the county. Megan’s current research focuses on using open data science and refined remote sensing techniques to more accurately identify wetland areas, particularly
by accounting for vegetation reflectance in water-filled environments. She is excited to apply her findings to advance sustainable wetland management and to support the protection of freshwater ecosystems.
Lab Alumni
PhD Students:
Kyle Runion (University of Texas at Austin, graduated 2025).
MS Students:
Jackson Akin (Colorado State University, graduated 2025).
Postdoctoral Researchers:
Saket Gowravaram (University of Texas at Austin)
Hossein Sahour (University of Texas at Austin)
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