Our Staff

James prepares fossils of mammals, mostly marine mammals including whales, dolphins, and pinnipeds from the Oligocene, Miocene, and Pleistocene, for use in research and display.

As a Preparator at Project 23, Karin is responsible for excavating fossils, training volunteers and students and sharing her expertise with the public.

Brent Riggs holds a B.A. in Visual Studies from the University of California, San Diego. Since 2003 he has been managing a database project to digitize and catalog the Seaver Center’s primary photographic collections.

As Associate Vice President for Collections, Trina works with staff in all departments to improve and advocate for our three museums’ incredible collections.

Shannen is a mammalogist from Utah with research interests in small mammals of the Western U.S. and comparative primate life histories. She oversees the care, management, and digitization of the museum's nearly 100,000 specimen mammal collection.

Rodrigo’s research focuses on evolutionary biology and diversity of short-range endemic arthropods; he is expert in systematics and phylogenetics of the arachnid order Schizomida.

Kimberly is a graduate student at U.S.C. and NHM. She is studying the evolution of Channel Island foxes with Xiaoming Wang.

Maeve is a Ph.D. student at USC and a graduate student-in-residence in Ornithology, working with Allison Shultz.

Allison is an ornithologist who integrates research across evolutionary timescales to gain an understanding of the processes that produce the patterns of biodiversity.