Chrissy
Mackenzie
Alex
Graduate students
Christine Grebe
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Chrissy is a first-year Ph.D. student. Chrissy graduated with a B.S. in Zoology and English with a minor in Environmental Studies from UW-Madison in 2016. Chrissy served as a field research assistant in South Africa, contributing to the McFarland Lab's behavioral physiology and ecology research on wild chacma baboons. Chrissy also participated in research monitoring the ranging patterns and site fidelity of Bryde's whales and common dolphins in the Hauraki Gulf of New Zealand. Chrissy is primarily interested in baboon thermal physiology and behavioral plasticity relating to changing environmental conditions.
Mackenzie Hewes
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Mackenzie is a first-year Ph.D. student. Mackenzie graduated with a BS in wildlife ecology and conservation from the University of Florida in 2017 and an MRes Science from University of Portsmouth in 2018. For her master’s thesis Mackenzie examined community variation in the play face in chimpanzees at Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage, Zambia. Mackenzie's other research projects have focused on personality and behavioral plasticity with habitat disturbance in mice and hermit crabs in Costa Rica. Mackenzie is interested in consistent individual differences among primates, and is supported by a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
Emma Kirby
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Emma is a second-year Masters student with an interdisciplinary background in forensic anthropology and primatology. Emma graduated with a B.A. in Anthropology with a double minor from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in the fall of 2012, and a M.A. in Anthropology from Wichita State University in the spring of 2016. For her previous master’s thesis, Emma examined the use of tools in Sumatran orangutans at the Sedgwick County Zoo, Kansas. Emma has completed internships at Chimp Haven and the Animal Behavior and Endocrinology Reproductive laboratory at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. Emma is interested in thermal physiology, GIS, and primate behavioral flexibility.
Alexandra Steffeck
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Alexandra is a first-year Ph.D. student with an interdisciplinary background in Psychology, Biological Anthropology, and Primatology. Alexandra graduated with B.S. degrees in Psychology and Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 2017. After graduating, Alexandra spent nine months in Palenque National Park, Mexico, studying the travel behavior and spatial navigation of black howler monkeys. Alexandra's Ph.D. will focus on the social behavior and spatial navigation of chacma baboons in South Africa.
Field assistants
Melia Markham
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Melia recently graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a BS in Biology, Zoology, and Conservation Biology and a certificate in Environmental Studies. Melia joined the Swebeswebe Primate Project in June 2019.
Reilly Mooney
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Reilly recently graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a BA in Zoology and Conservation Biology and a certificate in Environmental Studies. Reilly joined the Swebeswebe Primate Project in June 2019.
Melia & Reilly
