President Quinton Phelps
Quinton Phelps is the Vice president of the Southern Illinois University student subsection of the American Fisheries Society. Quinton is a Ph.D. student under Dr. Jim Garvey currently studying the ecology of sturgeons in the middle Mississippi River. Specifically, his study focuses on variation in growth and recruitment across latitudinal gradients and how these sturgeon populations respond to factors such as harvest. Quinton is also active in inland warmwater fisheries research. Quinton has been involved in fisheries since 1998-1999 when he began working with Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. After completion of an Associates of Science at a small college in Kansas, he transferred to South Dakota State University to pursue both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Science. While at South Dakota, Quinton was involved with projects occurring with South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Upon completion of his Master’s degree Quinton moved to Southern Illinois University to obtain a Ph.D. and become more diversified in the fisheries field. Throughout Quinton’s fisheries career he has published multiple peer-reviewed journal articles and popular articles on a variety of fisheries related topics. qphelps@siu.edu

Vice President Heather Calkins

Heather is currently working on her MS degree under Dr. James Garvey. Her research involves a comparison of diet composition 
and habitat utilization of silver carp in the Upper Mississippi and Middle Mississippi River. She started at SIUC Summer 2007 
after receiving a B.S. in Fisheries and Wildlife from the University of Missouri- Columbia. Heather was employed the two 
prior summers by the Missouri Department of Conservation where she was involved in research and management work in fisheries. 
She has a great interest in the ecology of lotic systems, whether big or small. When not working on the river or involved 
in other fisheries activities, Heather loves to be outside and enjoys time with family and friends. hacc46@siu.edu

Secretary / Treasurer Dawn Sechler

Dawn is currently working on her MS degree under Dr. James Garvey. She came to Southern Illinois University-Carbondale from Hiram, College in Ohio where she received her B.A. in Biology. Her research at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale involves the early life history of Scaphirhynchus sturgeon in the Middle Mississippi River. More specifically, diet composition and whether its effected by water discharge, current velocity, dissolved oxygen, water temperature,  length of fish, and/ or availability of macroinvertebrates. This entails collecting fish, detritus, and water parameters (i.e., water velocity, dissolved oxygen, temperature) from 3 sites in the Middle Mississippi River that each have 12 microhabitats that are trawled both nearshore (< 3 meters) and offshore (> 3 meters). The fish diet composition will be analyzed to family taxonomic level as well as the detritus samples.  dsechler@siu.edu