Story Lesher

Story Lesher is a graduate research assistant at EIH while pursuing a master’s degree in environmental science with a specialization in biology at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. For her master’s thesis, she plans to study seagrass ecology, including interactions with seahorses and the impacts of climate change.

Lesher, a South Dakota native, graduated from Grinnell College with a B.A. in biology and a concentration in environmental studies in May 2019. During her time there, she worked as an assistant at the Grinnell College Herbarium, cataloguing and repairing plant specimens. She also worked as a fungal biology lab assistant where she genetically identified fungal isolates from the Namib Desert and nearby ocean, determining if species crossover was possible between the two habitats. Most recently, she has worked with an earth systems studies professor at Grinnell, studying soil respiration rates of the Iowa prairie and how they differ under varying physical and chemical conditions. Lesher plans to continue her studies to obtain a PhD in the future.