My name is Shay S. Keretz (formerly Shay S. Allred) and I am an Arizona native currently working as a research professional at the US Forest Service Northern Research Station in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. I am leading a project surveying for native mussels in the national forests of the Laurentian Great Lakes. 

Over the years, my academic journey has taken me across the United States, from an undergraduate degree at Northern Arizona University to my master's degree at Mississippi State University (#HailState!). I met my husband, Kevin Keretz, at Mississippi State University in 2016. We moved to Ohio in 2018 and I started my PhD at Central Michigan University shortly after. I received a PhD from the Earth and Ecosystem Sciences PhD program at Central Michigan University in May 2023. I was advised by Dr. David Zanatta and Dr. Daelyn Woolnough and my dissertation project focused on creating species distribution models for both native and invasive mollusks (unionids, dreissenids, and gastropods) in the Detroit and St. Clair rivers of the Great Lakes. Following my PhD, I started a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan where I led a multi-disciplinary team to create a dynamic energy budget model for dreissenid mussels.

Some of my research interests include spatial distribution modeling, aquatic species and habitat conservation, invasive species, pathology, physiology, and environmental policy. I also thoroughly enjoy math and statistics. Programs I have used extensively include R, ArcGIS, SigmaPlot, SAS, and MaxEnt. My favorite fish is the Brook Trout and my favorite mussel is the Mapleleaf. 

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