Jon Skaggs
Meet the Team
Travis DeVault
Associate Director of Research
Senior Research Scientist
Travis is the Associate Director for Research and Senior Research Scientist at the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. He also has a courtesy faculty appointment in the Warnell School of Forestry & Natural Resources where he advises graduate students. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in ecology and systematics from the Department of Biology at Indiana State University and a PhD in wildlife ecology from the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources at Purdue University. Travis is a wildlife ecologist and conservation biologist; his research focuses on understanding and preventing animal-vehicle collisions and other human-wildlife conflicts. He also maintains a long term research interest in the ecology of vultures and other vertebrate scavengers. Outside of work, Travis is a jack of all trades and master of none. He’s an eclectic sort who enjoys fishing, hunting, kayaking and canoeing, hiking with his family, wrestling with his dogs, playing basketball and disc golf, obsessing over Chicago Cubs baseball and Indianapolis Colts football, blues guitar, tinkering in his woodshop, and playing video games while consuming bourbon and scotch. Actually, he is pretty good at that last one.
Amelia Russell Scollon
Research Coordinator
Lab Manager
Amelia earned her B.S. in Biology from the University of South Carolina Upstate and a M.S. in Forestry and Natural Resources with a concentration in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Georgia. Prior to accepting her position as lab manager of the DeVault Wildlife Lab at SREL, Amelia worked as a conservation biologist consulting with a variety of clientele throughout central and south Florida. She has nearly 10 years of experience working with numerous species of reptiles and amphibians, including several imperiled species of turtles and tortoises. In addition, Amelia has worked on a handful of mammal projects including the USDA's Rabies Eradication Program, and the study of coyote and deer populations in urban and rural areas. In general, Amelia is most interested in applied ecology and wildlife conservation. In her spare time, she enjoys life on her little farm, kayaking, hiking and spending time with family and friends.
Caryn Ross
PhD Student
Caryn earned her B.S. in Biology from Longwood University and her M.S. in Environmental Science from University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Her passions for ornithology, citizen science, and facilitation of public communication began as an undergraduate researcher and continue today. She has experience in wild bird rehabilitation, bird banding, falconry, land conservation, outdoor environmental education, and ecological modeling. Her undergraduate research focused on the effects of urbanization on birds in the southeastern U.S. and the status of common wintering bird populations in Virginia. Her master’s thesis focused on the effects of urbanization on avian diversity throughout the state of Tennessee over a 40-year period, utilizing citizen science data and GIS. She has worked on several migratory and breeding bird research projects. Prior to joining the DeVault lab, Caryn worked as a USGS Biologist on a research team employing a system dynamics model to investigate climate change effects on prairie pothole wetlands and potential future impacts on breeding duck pairs in the United States.
Carson Pakula
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Dr. Carson Pakula is originally from Canton, Michigan, and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology with a concentration in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation from Central Michigan University in 2020. His passion for wildlife biology further developed throughout his undergraduate studies while working in a wildlife research lab, where he studied black-footed ferret inbreeding and paternity and the effects of hiking trails on mammal populations. He later earned his PhD in Forestry and Natural Resources from the University of Georgia in 2025 at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory under the direction of Dr. Travis DeVault and Dr. Olin Rhodes Jr. His dissertation investigated the causes of wildlife-vehicle collisions through the perspectives of both driver and animal behavior. Specifically, he evaluated how well drivers could see wildlife at night and the effects of vehicle lighting on white-tailed deer and wild pig behavior. Currently, Carson is a postdoctoral researcher for the UGA Deer Lab working under the direction of Dr. Gino D’Angelo and Dr. Travis DeVault. He is leading a critical literature review of the causes of wildlife-vehicle collisions and the potential efficacy of crossing structures as a mitigation strategy for the Georgia Department of Transportation.
Matthew Strassburg
Research Technician II
Matthew earned his B.S. degree in Ecology at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota and his M.S. degree in Zoology at North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota. He has experience working with several avian communities including passerines, shorebirds, waterfowl, and wading birds. His current research investigates avian use of the Augusta, GA airport and heavy metals ecotoxicology of wetland birds in Savannah, GA. His research interests include the ecological factors affecting long-term population trends of passerine species.
Kasey Wood
MS Student
Kasey is a graduate research assistant in the Beasley and DeVault Labs. He earned a B.S. in Zoology from North Carolina State University in 2022. After graduating, he worked for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission in land and wildlife management. In 2024, he switched from wildlife management to research working on various projects throughout the Southeastern United States, including the population density of bobwhite quail in coastal South Carolina, genetic sampling of black bear populations using hair snares and GPS collaring in Southern Georgia through the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, and studying CWD dispersion in white-tailed deer populations in western Kentucky through GPS collaring with Kentucky DNR. His past work in the Beasley lab, focusing on managing wild pig removal efforts, led him to pursue an M.S. examining wild pig behavior and movement around roads.
