Hello!
carli
Ecologist & Science Communicator
Hi, I'm carli! An ecologist, researcher, & science communicator based in central Pennsylvania. I study how environmental variability shapes the demography & life histories of reptiles & ampbihians, & I coordinate the Research & Mentoring for Postbaccalaureates (RaMP) program for SPARCnet. I am drawn to explore long-term field data to accumulate understanding & sharing what we learn to a broader audience.
Research
I've spent the past decade studying garter snakes, eastern red-backed salamanders, & wood turtles, asking how food availability & climate variability shape individual growth, body condition, & population demography over time. This work has taken me from California's Sierra Nevada to Pennsylvania's vernal pools, & into a global collaboration on amphibian survival patterns.Selected Publications
Cayuela, H. et al., including Dinsmore, C. R. (In prep). Global patterns and drivers of amphibian survival. Nature Communications.
Dinsmore, C. R. et al. (2025). Food availability has direct and delayed effects on structural growth and body reserves in garter snakes. Ecology. DOI Link Here
Dinsmore, C. R. et al. (2024). Princes and Paupers: Effects of Annual and Early-Life Resource Variability on Demography in Populations of Common Garter Snakes. Journal of Herpetology. DOI Link Here
Teaching
Building connections is the foundation of teaching. Connections between ideas, coursework, and real world experiences. I structure my classes around active learning & hands-on application. I try to scaffold concepts as they grow in complexity, revisiting ideas as understanding deepens, treating errors as a normal & necessary part of learning.This same philosophy carries into mentoring through individualized guidance that meets people where they are by sharing enthusiasm. Encouraging calculated risks & comfort with failure help build independence.
Outreach
Since 2024, I've served as Research Coordinator for SPARCnet's Research & Mentoring for Postbaccalaureates (RaMP) program, supporting a multi-institutional network of mentors & early-career researchers in salamander ecology & conservation. I manage research programming, mentee data quality, & the program's public-facing outreach, including Instagram, Facebook & TikTok accounts, where I produce original content connecting our research to the public.
Get in touch!
© carli dinsmore. All rights reserved.