The Culley Lab

Dr. Theresa Culley (PI)
Theresa is plant evolutionary biologist who is very curious and loves to explore new questions, especially involving the plant world. She studies both rare, endangered species as well as invasive plants, and is interested in working with diverse groups of individuals.

Ryan Brooks  (MS Student)
Ryan is a new graduate student who will be working on rare oak species at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden’s CREW facility.

Max Winkeljohn (PhD Student)
Having started as an undergraduate researcher, Max has quickly progressed to developing his own interest in working with endangered oak and ash tree species in collaboration with Dr. Valerie Pence at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden’s CREW facility. He is currently focusing on improving the methodology of in vitro micropropagation and cryopreservation techniques.

Jenn Breiner
After working in our lab for several semesters learning DNA techniques and helping with our public garden project, Jenn graduated with her B.S. degree. She will be starting the PhD program in our department and continue working in our lab, starting Fall 2025. Her interests lie in pollination biology and plant-insect interactions.

Cait Barilleaux
Cait has been conducting research in our lab for a few semesters, focusing on DNA analysis of wintercreeper and other species.

Becca Erikson
After talking some courses from Theresa Culley, Becca began working on our laboratory, learning genetic techniques and working with Cait on the genetic parentage of wintercreeper seeds.

Dr. Eric Tepe – An Assistant Professor in the Biological Sciences Department, Dr. Tepe shares our lab suite and our lab members are highly intermixed.  He is a plant systematist with expertise in the Solanaceae and the Piper genus. Together with Dr. Culley, they greatly enjoy co-teaching Medical Botany (BIOL 3052).

Dr. Maria Torres – Dr. Torres is Assistant Professor-Educator in our department who conducts her research with Eric Tepe in our laboratory suite.  She teaches a number of courses in our department and also serves as an academic advisor to a number of our majors. Originally from Columbia, she is also a member of our Publication Bias project.