Amanda Sparkman, Ph.D.

Dr. Sparkman graduated from Westmont in 2003 with degrees in both English and biology. She attended graduate school at Iowa State University, earning a doctorate in ecology and evolutionary biology in 2009. For the next two years, she was a post-doctoral researcher at Trent University in Ontario, Canada studying the evolution of social behavior in wolves. She joined the Westmont faculty in 2012, and teaches courses in ecology, evolution, behaviour, ornithology, herpetology, and bioethics.  She is also the co-advisor of the Environmental Studies minor and co-teaches Westmont's introductory environmental studies course. Her current research projects include the evolution of dwarfism in reptiles on the California Channel Islands, the response of western terrestrial garter snakes to environmental change, and the impacts of urbanization on western fence lizard physiology, behavior, and distribution.