Shannon LaDeau received her Ph.D. in ecology at Duke University in 2005, where she investigated forest response to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide. She is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow, NSF Program in Bioinformatics. She is jointly housed at The Ohio State University's Program in Spatial Statistics and Environmental Sciences and at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. LaDeau's research continues to focus on evaluating how ecological communities respond to global change challenges, including climate, habitat loss, and emergent pathogens. Her current work examines the spatio-temporal drivers of West Nile amplification in avian host communities.