About Me

Jessica grew up in the small community of Mattawa, Ontario (60km east of North Bay). When not in the lab, you can find her in figure skates, on a curling sheet, listening to podcasts, in a canoe, or watching the beautiful sunsets on Lake Temagami. She likes board games, dancing, and laughing.

She completed both her undergraduate degree in Psychology and her Environmental science master’s degree at Nipissing University working in the Human Evolution Laboratory under Dr. Steven Arnocky. Here, her love of research began while working on projects related to the intersection of biology and social behaviours (e.g. mating preferences, immunocompetence-social behaviour link, and environmental concern). To read more about research conducted in that lab, click the logo below.

Jessica continued her graduate research at Carleton University working with Dr. John Zelenski in the Happiness Lab. Here, she worked on projects about nature, sustainability, and well-being. To read more about the research conducted in this lab, click the logo below.

Jessica has published widely in international peer-reviewed journals like Personality and Individual Difference, Journal of Environmental Psychology, Current Psychology, Collabora: Psychology, International Journal of Eating Disorders, Evolutionary Psychological Science, and others. She has also presented at international and national conferences.

Jessica has also been awarded numerous scholarships, including the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canadian Graduate Scholarship, and Social Science and Humanities Council Doctoral Fellowship.

Jessica successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation in August 2023. Her dissertation "Even in the Middle of the City, I Notice Nature Around Me": Is Nature Relatedness Associated with Noticing Nature in Urban Environments? examined how nature related individuals may be better equipped to noticing more nature in city landscapes.

Jessica is also interested in advanced statistical analyses. She completed the requirements for the Quantitative Methodology concentration during her Ph.D. She has expertise in multivariate analyses, meta-analyses, and multi-level models using SPSS, SAS, and R.

Throughout her education, she has had the privilege to be a teaching assistant for many courses that have allowed her to interact with students and find joy in watching them understand the concepts she is explaining. After defending her dissertation, Jessica taught three courses over the 2023-2024 school terms at Carleton University. She taught two sections of Positive Psychology and one section of Introduction to Research Methods.

Currently, Jessica is on the lookout for positions where she can continue her passion of research in the social sciences.