Current lab members

Amanda Fisher

I am an Assistant Professor of Botany and Curator of the Herbarium (LOB) at Long Beach State University. I teach upper-level Botany courses in the Department of Biological Sciences (BIOL427, BIOL439). I am particularly interested in systematics and estimating the plant tree of life. Some of my students work on floristics- the study of plant diversity in a particular place. I graduated from the University of Iowa in 2004 with a BS in Environmental Sciences on the Botany track. In 2005 I began a PhD in Biology with Dr. Scot Kelchner at Idaho State University, working on the systematics of the neotropical bamboo genus Chusquea. In 2011 I began an NSF-funded postdoctoral fellowship at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont, California to work on chloridoid grass systematics with Dr. Travis Columbus. In 2013 I became the RSABG postdoctoral fellow, working with Dr. Lucinda McDade on the systematics of several Acanthaceae genera. I am collaborating with other Acanth botanists to resolve the family phylogeny using nuclear loci and to investigate patterns of pollinator shifts and macro-evolutionary effects on floral morphology.

I am currently looking for undergraduate and MS students to research plant evolution. Please contact me if you are interested in joining the lab!

Amanda [dot] Fisher [at] csulb [dot] edu



Harrison McGowan

is an MS student working on the flora of the Chiquito Basin in the Santa Ana Mtns, Cleveland National Forest, California. He received a scholarship to attend the Systematics Research Institute at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Summer, 2018 and presented his work at the 2019 Botany conference in Tucson, Arizona.



Amy Nguyen

is a BS student in the molecular lab. She is studying the anatomy of chloridoid grass leaves to test if particular leaf anatomy traits are correlated with the evolution of C4 photosynthesis subtypes. She presented her research at the Fall, 2019 CNSM Research Symposium. Amy is also an herbarium assistant, databasing for the California Phenology Project.



Monica Soenjoto

is a BS UROP student in the molecular lab. She is working on the Justicia pollination project, particularly Justicia longii!



Marina Rice

is a BS student and the undergraduate Collections Manager of the Long Beach State Herbarium and team leader for the California Phenology Project. Her project is on the elevation and phenological changes of She is also working with MS student Harrison McGowan on the flora of the Chiquito Basin. She analyzed elevation and phenological data for white sage (Salvia apiana)



Skye Idzinski

is a BS student and herbarium assistant. She is databasing for the California Phenology Project.







Former lab members

Laymon Ball was a BS student who studied the rhizosphere diversity of chloridoid grasses and the reproductive biology of Justicia californica. Laymon was a PLANTS mentee for the Botany 2017 conference in Fort Worth, Texas. She also received a scholarship to attend the Systematics Research Institute at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden for Summer, 2018. In Fall, 2019 Laymon began a Ph.D. with Dr. Laura Lagomarsino at Louisiana State University to study pollination biology.

Angel Barnett worked on the California Phenology Project in the Long Beach State Herbarium and graduated in Spring, 2019.

Robert Comito was an MS student studying the molecular phylogeny of Barleria (Acanthaceae) using RADseq, sampling >170 taxa in this genus of 325 species. Robert entered the Ph.D. program in Botany at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and Claremont Graduate University in Fall, 2019.

Sara Cuadra was a BS student and the undergraduate collections manager of the Long Beach State Herbarium (LOB). She was a pivotal member of the Long Beach State team for the California Phenology Project. After graduation Sara began an internship with the Long Beach Water Department, focused on the lawn to gardens program.

Joshua Arias was an MS student studying the phylogenomics of Acanthaceae by combining transcriptome and genome-skim data. He defended his MS thesis in Spring, 2019 and began a NIH Introduction to Cancer Research Careers fellowship in Summer, 2019 with Dr. Sonja Berndt.

Nneka Aruoma assembled transcriptomes of California cord grass Spartina foliosa and sectioned leaves for her undergraduate honors thesis. She graduated with her BS in Biology in 2018 and is pursuing a Masters of Public Health.

Bryana Olmeda was the undergraduate collections manager of the Long Beach State Herbarium (LOB) in Fall, 2018 and she was also a wetlands restoration intern at Tidal Influence. She graduated with her BS in Biology in December, 2018 and is a Seeds of Success intern with the Bureau of Land Management in Socorro, New Mexico. Bryana presented a poster on LOB at the 2019 Botany conference in Tucson, Arizona.

Keana Tang was a BS student in the Long Beach State Herbarium (LOB) and an intern at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum. She was formerly an intern for the Trinity Shasta National Forest. She was also a PLANTS mentee at the Botany 2018 conference in Rochester, Minnesota and received a scholarship to attend the Systematics Research Institute at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden for Summer, 2018. She is entering a MS in Dr. Brian Atkinson’s Paleobotany lab at the University of Kansas.

Emily Do was a BS student working on Acanthaceae leaf anatomy and graduated in December, 2018. She was awarded the Bennett and Peggy Kayser Research Award in 2018 to collect leaf samples at the Huntington Botanic Garden in Altadena, California.

Semaria Kassa was a BS student in the molecular lab and worked with Robert Comito on a RADseq phylogeny of the genus Barleria (Acanthaceae)

Mariangel Fernandez was a BS student working with MS student Harrison McGowan on the flora of the Chiquito Basin. She analyzed elevation and phenological data for toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia)

Brittany Betz is a Biological Desktop Technician with SWCA Pasadena. In the lab she co-authored the Flora of the Oasis de los Osos, a University of California Natural Reserve on the edge of the Sonoran Desert. After graduation she was a Seeds of Success intern with the Bureau of Land Management in Bishop, California.

Sierra Coleman is a Project Coordinator at VCS Environmental. She worked on a checklist of the vascular plants of Pleasants Peak in the Santa Ana Mountains.

Asusena Figueroa worked on a checklist of the vascular plants of Pleasants Peak in the Santa Ana Mountains.

Carolina Contreras studied morphological variation in lodgepole pine populations in Southern California and is pursuing a career in zoos and conservation.

Hannah Garfin studied morphological variation in lodgepole pine populations in Southern California and entered the CSULB MS GIS program and also works at Tidal Influence

Karla Gonzalez assisted with fieldwork for the Flora of the Oasis de los Osos.

Mark Noda databased specimens in the LOB herbarium and is employed at Paragon Labs

Krystiana Oberhammer volunteered in the LOB herbarium and studied the elevation change of collections of Calochortus. Kryssy is employed at KP Environmental.

Bridgette Saroff modeled the climatic factors affecting the distribution of Justicia californica and is pursuing medical school.

Chenyu Shen studied the flowering duration of Justicia californica in the Long Beach State greenhouses and is pursuing graduate school in Biology

Renee Stewart volunteered in the LOB herbarium.

Alan Vera databased specimens in the LOB herbarium and is pursuing medical school

Jennie Nguyen worked on scientific illustration and is in veterinary school at Michigan State University.