Leah Fitchett received her B.S. in Biology, as well as a minor in Marine Science from The College of William and Mary. She performed her undergraduate research in a Trace Metals Biogeochemistry lab at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science where she focused on measuring and comparing the trace-metal content of phytoplankton species within a mixed community. Since graduating in 2014, she has held positions as a Park Interpreter for Virginia State Parks, working to provide educational opportunities for park guests, and as a Watershed Management Research Assistant for Virginia Tech in conjunction with the National Forest Service, performing fieldwork in watershed and stream habitat assessment. She will focus her research in the Patek Lab on the acoustic communication and behavior of mantis shrimp. Through her research, she hopes to find connections to big-picture ecological roles of marine invertebrate communication, and the implications for natural resource management.
