Course Staff

Field Study Coordinator- Natalie Rice has conducted tropical herpetology field research in Peru and Trinidad and is published in several peer-reviewed science journals (JACS, JBC, and SAJH).  By formal training she is a chemist, having received master’s degrees from the University of North Carolina and Carnegie Mellon University.  Natalie has served as the group leader for the Duke TIP Biological Diversity in Costa Rica field studies and as an American Chemical Society science coach. She has also led biotechnology field studies sponsored by Syngenta and Novozymes at the Contemporary Science Center. Currently, she is the CEO of Scholastica Travel Inc.  Natalie is certified as an EMT and loves to hike, bike, row, scuba dive, and travel.

Herpetology Instructor- Dr. Tiffany Doan-Costa is an evolutionary biologist who specializes in the study of reptiles, particularly lizards from Latin America. She regularly conducts field research in foreign locales and has described and named four species as new to science. Tiffany is a biology professor, who has taught international courses in Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, and South Africa, and also teaches scuba diving and emergency first response.  Tiffany’s favorite interests include traveling, hiking, martial arts, and scuba diving.

Ornithology Instructor – Casi Avard has a master’s degree in Rural Sociology with an emphasis in sustainable resource use as well as a lifelong interest in birds. She has worked as a sustainable agriculture and community development practitioner in Missouri, Mexico, France and Costa Rica and has done avian ecology fieldwork in Missouri and Costa Rica. Casi enjoys teaching people about the incredible biodiversity in Costa Rica. She served as teaching assistant for the Duke TIP Biological Diversity field study course and as professor of field ethnobiology for the OTS-Duke Global Health program. Casi loves to run, hike, photograph birds and climb volcanoes with her husband.