Leslie Roche of Orosi, who served as a high school intern at Kearney, received the 2012 Shapiro Family Award for Excellence in Science for the quality of her doctorate dissertation and outstanding academic and research record at UC Davis.
"She did a bang-up job with us, continued through her undergraduate studies at UC Davis, and ended up doing a great Ph.D. dissertation," Mitchell said.
Roche's dissertation is titled, "Cattle Grazing and Provisioning of Ecosystem Services in Sierra Nevada Mountain Meadows." Working with UCCE specialist Ken Tate, Roche explored livestock grazing on U.S. Forest Service public lands and the conservation of the Yosemite toad, a sensitive species proposed for listing as endangered.
“Dr. Roche’s research was conducted in this charged political environment, filling a crucial gap in our basic understanding of toad-livestock interactions and providing direct translation for conservation of the Yosemite toad,” said Tate, Russell L. Rustici endowed chair in rangeland watershed science.
Roche is now a postdoctoral researcher in the UC Davis California Rangeland Watershed Laboratory, completing research and publications from additional projects she pursued during her doctoral program.