CV
Education
| Ph.D., Biology. University of Oklahoma (OU), Norman, OK | 2023 |
| Graduate Certificate in Earth Observation Science for Society & Sustainability, OU | 2017 |
| M.A., Biology. The Citadel Graduate College, The Citadel, Charleston, SC | 2014 |
| B.A., Biology. College of Charleston, Charleston, SC | 2007 |
Professional Appointments
Pritchards Island Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow Fall 2025 – Present
Department of Natural Sciences, University of South Carolina Beaufort (USCB)
Postdoctoral Researcher Fall 2024 – Summer 2025 Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Ecology, New Mexico State University (NMSU)
Fellowships
| NSF National Research Traineeship (NRT) Fellowship, $39,000 Aeroecology as a Test-bed for Interdisciplinary STEM Training | 2017 – 2018 |
Other Grants and Awards
| OU Biology Department Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching, $500 | 2023 |
| OU Biology Department Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching, $500 | 2022 |
| Kiawah Conservancy Environmental Research Grant, $7,920 | 2019 |
| Purple Martin Conservation Association Research Grant, $2,380 | 2019 |
| Kiawah Conservancy Environmental Research Grant, $7,250 | 2018 |
| OU Biology Loren G. Hill Excellence Fund, $500 | 2018 |
| Helen Miller Payne County Audubon Society Scholarship, $500 | 2017 |
| George Miksch Sutton Scholarship in Ornithology, $600 | 2017 |
| George Miksch Sutton Scholarship in Ornithology, $1,185 | 2016 |
Publications
Contina, A., Alcantara, J. L., Bridge, E. S., Ross, J. D., Oakley, W. F., Kelly, J. F., & Ruegg, K. C. (2019). Genetic structure of the Painted Bunting and its implications for conservation of migratory populations. Ibis, 161(2), 372-386.
Contina, A., Anderson, C. E., Hille, D. C., Oakley, W. F., Bridge, E. S., Kelly, J. F., Smith, H.O., Koch, J., & Jervis, L. L. (2021). Domesticating the Exotic? An Online Survey of Attitudes towards the International Wildlife Pet Trade. Conservation & Society, 19(3), 184-189.
Publications in Prep
Sutton, C.B., Vargo, D.J., Oakley, W.F., Gebreselassie, F., and Desmond, M.J. Breeding territory characteristics of a vulnerable aridland obligate songbird in the southwestern United States.
Oakley, W.F., Given, A.G., Patten, M.A., & Bridge, E.S. Translocation experiments reveal strong homing abilities and site fidelity for wintering songbirds in a threatened coastal salt marsh.
Oakley, W.F., Given, A.G., & Bridge, E.S. Annual survival rates and abundances of wintering songbirds in a South Carolina salt marsh.
Oakley, W.F. & Bridge, E.S. Predicting the impacts of future sea-level rise on wintering habitat for three tidal marsh songbird species at a South Carolina barrier island.
LePage, H.K., Bridge, E.S., Oakley, W.F., & Heaston, A. Comparison of migratory and resident bird species in a contaminated environment.
Conference Presentations
Oakley, W. 2025. Annual survival, abundance, and behavioral characteristics of wintering Ammospiza sparrow populations in a South Carolina salt marsh. 102nd Annual Meeting of the Eastern Bird Banding Association. Charleston, South Carolina. 28 February – 2 March 2025.
Oakley, W., Bridge, E., Smith-Patten, B., Patten, M. Can we use drones to locate and track Black Rails (Laterallus jamaicensis) during the breeding season? (poster). April 2017. Southwestern Association of Naturalists Conference. Lawton, OK.
Oakley, W., Bridge, E. Modeling Distributions of Disjunct Populations of Nelson’s Sparrow (Ammodramus nelsoni). (poster). North American Ornithological Congress, Washington DC, 16-20 August, 2016.
Bridge, Eli S., K. Broadfoot, P. B. Chilson, A. J. Contina, T. Fagin, K. Goodenough, K. Horton, J. F. Kelly, G. Melhado, W. Oakley, S. Pletschet, K. Stumpf. Macro-scale analysis of Purple Martin roosting populations using NEXRAD. North American Ornithological Congress, Washington DC, 16-20 August 2016.
E Bridge, J Ruyle, ID Grady, GP Robinson, WF Oakley, HK Lepage. A low-cost RFID reader and electronics platform for biological research. (poster). August 2017. Meeting of the American Ornithological Society (AOS) and Society for Canadian Ornithologists (SOC). East Lansing, Michigan, USA.
Workshops and Professional Development
| 3rd Radar Aeroecology Training School, OU, Norman, OK | 2019 |
| Science Through Multimedia Stories Workshop, Albuquerque, NM Society for Vertebrate Paleontology 2018 Meeting | 2018 |
| NSF National Research Traineeship Program, OU, Norman, OK | 2015 – 2018 |
| Program MARK Workshop, OU, Norman, OK (Co-organizer) | 2018 |
| sUAS Remote Pilot License Test Prep Course, OU, Norman, OK | 2017 |
| Professional Ethics Training/Responsible Conduct of Research Seminar, OU, Norman, OK | 2016 |
| Software Carpentry Workshop, OU, Norman, OK | 2016 |
| Advanced Programming and Graphing in R Workshop, Washington, DC North American Ornithological Conference | 2016 |
| Introduction to R Workshop, OU, Norman, OK Annual Meeting of the American Ornithologists’ Union and the Cooper Ornithological Society | 2015 |
| Careers in Ornithology, OU, Norman, OK Annual Meeting of the American Ornithologists’ Union and the Cooper Ornithological Society | 2015 |
Service to Institution
Sam Noble Museum at the University of Oklahoma
• Outreach Event Volunteer, Full S.T.E.A.M Ahead at Sam Noble, 2022.
• Bird Specimen Preparation Volunteer, Ornithology Collection, 2016 – 2017.
University of Oklahoma
• Teaching Assistant, Coding Outreach for Data Education (CODE) Workshop, 2022.
Service to Profession
Journal Services – Peer Reviewer
Southwestern Naturalist (2016), The Auk: Ornithological Advances (2017)
Professional Memberships
American Ornithological Society
Association of Field Ornithologists
Association of Southeastern Biologists
Field Research Experience
| Savannah Sparrow Monitoring Research Volunteer (Kent Island, Canada), University of Guelph | 2017 | |
| Black Rail Survey Technician, Oklahoma Dept. of Wildlife Conservation | 2017 | |
| Grassland & Breeding Bird Survey Field Crew Leader, Oklahoma Biological Survey, OK | 2015 | |
| Winter Marsh Sparrow Population Monitoring Volunteer, Town of Kiawah Island, SC | 2012 – 2018 | |
| Bird & Bat Survey Wildlife Technician (Lewes, DE), University of Delaware, DE | 2012 | |
| Migratory Bird Survey Field Technician, University of Southern Mississippi, MS | 2011 | |
| Fall Migration Bird Banding Assistant, Town of Kiawah Island, SC | 2010 – 2014 | |
| Bird Banding Research Volunteer (Peru), University of Florida | 2010 | |
Teaching Experience
| Graduate Teaching Assistant, OU, Department of Biology, Principles of Physiology Lab | 2020 – 2023 |
| Graduate Teaching Assistant, OU, Department of Biology, Intro Biology Lab | 2019 |
| Graduate Teaching Assistant, OU, Department of Biology, Human Anatomy Lab | 2016 |
| Instructor, OU, Department of Biology, Electronics for Non-Engineers | 2019 |
| Undergraduate Tutor, The Citadel, Academic Support Center, Biology/Chemistry/Writing | 2014 – 2015 |
Other Professional Experience
| Naturalist (Nature Tour Guide), Kiawah Island Golf Resort, Kiawah Island, SC | 2009-2013 |
| Children’s Ski Instructor, Canyons Resort, Park City, UT | 2008-2009 |
| Wilderness Trip Leader, Camp North Star for Boys, Hayward, WI | 2008 |
| Teaching Intern, The Leadership School at Kieve-Wavus, Nobleboro, ME | 2008 |
| Intern, National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), Tucson, AZ, | Fall 2007 |
Computer Software Skills
R; Program MARK; ArcGIS 10.x; ArcGIS Pro; QGIS; Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model (SLAMM); MS Office; Zotero; Biopac Student Lab; Logger Pro; MaxEnt; NOAA’s Weather and Climate Toolkit (WCT); Arduino.
Specialized Analytical Skills
Estimation of demographic parameters using mark-recapture data; Survival analysis techniques (e.g., Kaplan Meier method and Cox Proportional Hazards modeling); Modeling future sea level rise impacts on coastal habitats; Likelihood-ratio tests and logistic regression models; Least cost path (LCP) analyses; Multi-model selection (AIC).
Familiarity with developing and/or coding agent-based models (ABMs), Bayesian analyses, species distribution models (SDM), population viability analyses (PVA), and extraction of data from still images and video using the R programming environment.
Specialized Field Skills
Bird banding (over 2,500 passerines and near-passerine banded); Mist-netting of birds; Radio telemetry of birds; Point-count and transect surveys for birds; Designing and conducting translocation/displacement experiments with birds; Blood and feather sampling of birds; Carcass surveys for birds and bats; Operating acoustic recording equipment (e.g., Wildlife Acoustics SM2 recorders) for bird and bat flight calls; Operating thermal imaging camera and screening thermal video for birds and bats; Deploying light- level geolocators.
Land and water vehicles: 4WD; Manual transmission autos; Small horsepower boats in tidal marshes and near-coast waters; Flat-water and river canoeing; Flat-water kayaking; Standup paddleboarding; Towing RVs and motorboat trailers; UAV/Drone operation (e.g., DJI Phantom 4 drone).
Leadership & Outdoor Recreation Skills
| National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), Semester in the Southwest An 88-day expedition-based leadership and outdoor recreation course in Arizona and New Mexico with technical skills training in river canoeing, rock climbing, caving, backcountry travel, orienteering, backpacking, and camping. | Spring 2006 |
| Boy Scouts of America Eagle Scout Awarded (1998) | 1995-1998 |
William Oakley 