“Where are they now:” is a blog series on the California WaterBlog, written in the voices of our alumni. The series celebrates the many alumni who got their start at the Center for Watershed Sciences (CWS) and have now gone on to bigger and better things. Blog posts from “Where are they now:” will be peppered throughout our regularly scheduled line up blogs, and they will highlight both former students and past employees of CWS. We hope you enjoy their stories in their own words!
Next up is Kelly Ann Neal, who was at CWS from 2016 – 2022.
I worked at CWS as an undergraduate from 2016 – 2019, then as a junior specialist from 2019 – 2022. My work at CWS primarily focused on juvenile salmon fish dissections and gut content identification, but I tried to help out with many other projects when I could as well! I also did eye lens delamination work with the eyes and ears project, went out for Fall River tagging of rainbow trout, and joined a handful of other excursions to mountain meadows and the San Francisco estuary.
I even participated in the incredible Ecogeo class CWS offered, which was easily my favorite class I took during undergrad. This class was during spring and summer 2018, where we followed the Tuolumne River from its headwaters in Yosemite National Park to its confluence with the San Joaquin River. During Ecogeo, we followed and studied the Tuolumne River from its headwaters in Yosemite, to its confluence with the San Joaquin River. I had seen many macroinvertebrates from the fish stomachs I dissected in the lab, but seeing them alive and embedded in the stream ecosystem so clearly on the fieldtrip cemented my understanding of them unlike any other experience could have. My group for the class even completed a small scientific report on the macroinvertebrates we encountered on the trip, and how their assemblages shifted as we went downstream.
It would be impossible to pick a singular favorite memory at CWS, and my time there as a whole will always hold a special place in my mind and heart because of all the wonderful people I met and work I got to be a part of.
I am now a graduate student pursuing a PhD at the School of Aquatic Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington. Without a doubt, I would not be where I am today, conducting my own graduate research project I was able to build from the ground up, without the experience and confidence I gained while at CWS. I often rep CWS gear for my field excursions just as an excuse to tell folks up here in Washington about the amazing work going on at “The Shed”. I am so grateful to be where I am, doing what I am doing, and know it would not have been possible without everything CWS gave me as a budding scientist.
About the Author
Kelly Neal’s research interests lie at the interface of terrestrial-aquatic linkages, particularly how these linkages impact the recovery of salmon populations. While a student at UC Davis, and then after graduation as a research specialist, she worked on projects at the Center for Watershed Sciences in the Johnson-Jeffres Lab. Over the course of 6 years, Kelly played a key role on projects at the Center for Watershed Sciences that help uncover which habitats best support juvenile salmon rearing and survivorship throughout Northern California including the San Francisco Bay Delta, the San Joaquin-Sacramento River System, and Butte Creek. As a graduate student at SAFS, Kelly is currently conducting research on how beaver dams impact juvenile salmon rearing and survivorship throughout the state of Washington. She is specifically looking into how beavers impact the carbon base of food webs that support juvenile Coho using fatty acid compounds. Her goal is to have this research aid the direction of conservation efforts that utilize beavers for salmon habitat restoration. When not working on her graduate research projects, Kelly can usually be found enjoying the outdoors either swimming, paddle boarding, hiking, or skiing.
Further Reading
Neal, K. 2021. A Fishmas Carol: Ghosts of Salmons’ Pasts. California WaterBlog.
Neal, K. and G. Saron. 2019. Night of the Living Dead Salmon. California WaterBlog.
Sturrock, A.M., M. Ogaz, K. Neal, N.J. Corline, R. Peek, D. Myers, S. Schluep, M. Levinson, R.C. Johnson, C.A. Jeffres. 2022. Floodplain trophic subsidies in a modified river network: Managed foodscapes of the future? Landscape Ecology 37, 2991–3009. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-022-01526-5
Support experiences like this
If this story resonated with you, consider making a gift to the Center to help us create more meaningful opportunities for students across our programs. Want to support the specific experience featured here? You can do that too, by supporting the CWS Ecogeomorphology Fund and CWS Fishes, Floodplains, and Springs Research.
Exciting news!
The International Fish Passage Conference will be at UC Davis May 4–8, 2026.
Session and workshop proposals are being accepted through October 31.
Talk and poster abstracts will be accepted from November 17 to January 15.
Learn more: https://watershed.ucdavis.edu/news/fish-passage-conference-2026
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