Congratulations are in order for Kelly Derr. This fall she completed and defended her dissertation, and was presented with her diploma in December. Her dissertation–Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction of the Gulf Islands, Southwestern British Columbia–characterized the plant communities and ecological change during the last 6,000 years on the Gulf Islands of Southwestern British Columbia, Canada. She used lake sediment core samples and analyzed fossil pollen and charcoal to create a baseline regional environmental history. Her research placed particular emphasis on human-plant interactions among pre-contact Coast Salish peoples to understand how people used and managed plants.
