Jenna McCullough

Jenna McCullough is an NSF postdoctoral fellow with a dual affiliation in NHM's Ornithology department and the Biology Department at UCLA. Jenna joined us from the University of Kentucky, where she worked on improving macroevolutionary models during her first postdoctoral appointment. She earned her PhD in 2024 from the University of New Mexico where she studied species and phenotypic diversification of Indo-Pacific kingfishers. Her masters research, performed at the same institution, focused on the evolution of the avian order Coraciiformes, which includes bee-eaters, rollers, motmots, and kingfishers. Prior to that, she earned dual bachelor’s degrees in biology and wildlife resources from the University of Idaho. Jenna has expertise in avian systematics and phylogenetics, island biogeography, and trait evolution.