RESEARCH INTERESTS
Wildlife Ecotoxicology and Ecology. Dissertation project focuses on blood concentrations and immunotoxicological effects of persistent organic marine pollutants in the Pacific harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) of the San Francisco Bay and central coast of California.

EDUCATION
Ph. D. candidate, Ecology. Dept. of Environmental Toxicology, U. C. Davis, 1997--present.
M. S. (thesis), Wildland Resource Science: Wildlife Biology, Dept. of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, U. C. Berkeley, 1996.
B. A. (thesis), Environmental Studies: Agroecology, U. C. Santa Cruz, 1990.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Invited lecturer, "Past and present challenges in Ecotoxicology". Environmental Science and Policy 100 "Introduction to Ecology and Evolution", U.C. Davis, November 2001.
Graduate Teaching Assistant, Environmental Toxicology (ETX) 10 "Introduction to Environmental Toxicology", U.C. Davis, Spring 2001.
Graduate Teaching Assistant, ETX 10, U.C. Davis, Spring 2000.
Invited lecturer, "Persistent Contaminants in Marine Mammals of the San Francisco Estuary". ETX 10, U.C. Davis, April 1999.
Graduate Teaching Assistant, ECL 200A (graduate core course) "Principles and Application of Ecological Theory", U.C. Davis, Fall 1998.
Science educator/Naturalist, Los Angeles County Office of Education, bilingual (Spanish) elementary outdoor science education, Wrightwood, CA, 1991-1993.

PREVIOUS RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
Graduate Student Researcher, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, U. C. Davis, 1997-1998. Developed Artificial Neural Network model of factors influencing water quality in the San Francisco Estuary.

Graduate Student Researcher, (1995) and Staff Research Associate (1996), Dept. of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, U. C. Berkeley. Field study of niche relationships among terrestrial carnivores in northern California (Hopland Research and Extension Center, Hopland, CA).

Graduate Student Researcher, Dept. of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, U. C. Berkeley, 1993-1994. Field monitoring of threatened and endangered wildlife species (Concord Naval Weapons Station, Concord, CA).

Avian Researcher, U. Arizona, 1993.

AWARDS
Best Student Presentation (1st Place), "Contaminant-induced immune alterations in the harbor seal, Phoca vitulina". The Wildlife Society-Western Section Annual Meeting, Visalia, CA, Mar 7-9, 2002.
U. C. Marine Council-Coastal Environmental Quality Initiative Graduate Research Support Grant, 2002
National Institutes for Environmental Health Sciences Graduate Traineeship in Environmental Toxicology, 2001-U. C. Jastro-Shields Research Grant, 2001
Graduate Group in Ecology-University Fellowship, U. C. Davis, 1998-2001
Herbert C. Sampert Memorial Prize in Forestry, U. C. Berkeley, 1994-1995
Frank Myers Scholarship in Forestry, U. C. Berkeley, 1994-1995

PUBLICATIONS (last 5 years only)
Sacks, B.N., and J.C.C. Neale. 2002. Foraging strategy of a generalist predator toward a special prey: coyote predation on sheep. Ecological Applications: 12: 299-306.

Jaeger, M.M., K.M. Blejwas, B.N. Sacks, J.C.C. Neale, M.M. Conner, and D.R. McCullough. 2001. Targeting alphas can make coyote control more effective and socially acceptable. California Agriculture 55: 32-36.

Neale, J.C.C., and B.N. Sacks. 2001. Food habits and space use of gray foxes in relation to sympatric coyotes and bobcats. Can. J. Zool. 79: 1794-1800.

Neale, J.C.C., and B.N. Sacks. 2001. Resource utilization and interspecific relations of sympatric bobcats and coyotes. Oikos 94: 236-249.

Sacks, B. N., and J. C. C. Neale. 2001. Does paternal care of pups benefit breeding female coyotes (Canis latrans)? Southwestern Naturalist 46: 121-126.

Sacks, B. N., M. M. Jaeger, J. C. C. Neale, and D. R. McCullough. 1999. Territoriality and breeding status of coyotes relative to predation on sheep. Journal of Wildlife Management 63:593-605.

Neale, J. C. C., B. N. Sacks, M. M. Jaeger, and D. R. McCullough. 1998. A comparison of bobcat and coyote predation on lambs in north-coastal California. Journal of Wildlife Management 62: 700-706.

Lynn, S., M.L. Morrison, A.J. Kuenzi, J.C.C. Neale, B.N. Sacks, R. Hamlin, and L.S. Hall. 1998. Bird use of riparian vegetation along the Truckee River, California and Nevada. Great Basin Naturalist 58:328-343.

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
American Society of Mammalogists
Wildlife Society
Wildlife Disease Association
Southwestern Association of Naturalists
Society of Marine Mammalogists