Ashley Willis Mascareñas has been passionate about adventure, exploring the unknown, and getting muddy from a very young age. She soon realized that studying and pursuing a career in biology would be the perfect way to follow her passions.

Willis Mascareñas earned her undergraduate degree in Biology with a concentration in ecology, evolution, and organismal biology at The University of New Mexico (UNM). While at UNM, she worked in the Museum of Southwestern Biology in the Department of Fishes. She also served as a Water Resource Management fellow and worked with the American Southwest Ichthyological Researchers, a group dedicated to fish conservation.

Now a Ph.D. student at UNM, Willis Mascareñas is focused on using museum collections to study how freshwater fish respond to changes in their habitats and how these responses vary across time and space. Under the advisement of Tom Turner and the Turner Aquatic Conservation Lab, her research will center on the desert rivers of the Southwest and the fish species that inhabit them.