Devon Gaydos

I am currently a Ph.D. student in the Center for Geospatial Analytics at North Carolina State University. As a part of the Meentemeyer Lab, I am studying the landscape epidemiology of Phytophthora ramorum, the causal agent of Sudden Oak Death disease in California and Oregon. Introduced in the mid-1990s, this incredibly destructive forest pathogen has already killed millions of oaks and tanoaks, leading to widespread negative environmental and economic impacts. As an interwoven environmental and social problem, few optimal solutions are apparent and intensive management could create unintended consequences at multiple scales. Achieving viable management strategies requires developing tools that can thoroughly evaluate treatment outcomes and promote collaborative decision making amongst key stakeholders. My work blends methods from disease ecology, geospatial analytics, and social science to prioritize management areas, examine tradeoffs of management scenarios, and engage key stakeholders in Oregon.