My immediate research interest is to study the ability of native species to develop a biotic resistance to invasions (natural or human mediated) in our marine benthic ecosystems so that we can maintain the populations of at-risk species. As a marine community ecologist in Temple University’s Graduate program, I focus on invasion ecology within multiple marine nearshore fouling communities across 47 degrees of latitude on the Pacific coast of Central and North America. I investigate how native and nonnative prey vary across latitudinal differences from the tropics to the poles in species richness and abundance when predation and competition are present and not present. I explore species groups like barnacles, bryozoans, ascidians, bivalves and sponges to understand these differences.