Alison Frohn

I was first introduced to diatoms as an undergrad, shortly after taking a job as a lab assistant at an environmental consulting firm. I fell so in love with them that I decided to pursue a M.S. in biology at John Carroll University, picking up basic paleolimnology and taxonomy skills along the way. Upon completing my degree, I accepted a Phycologist position at the Academy of Natural Sciences, where I worked on a long-term, collaborative water quality monitoring effort in the Delaware River Watershed. A few years later I became the Diatom Herbarium Collections Manager - an absolute dream job - until life moved me to the PNW, where I briefly pivoted to the world of HAB monitoring at Oregon DEQ. A pandemic and children brought me home to Ohio, where I am back in a (different) consulting firm, now as an Algal Taxonomist at EnviroScience, Inc.

While I've worn many hats in a short period of time, my love of diatoms and the diatomist community motivates me to continue building a jack-of-all-trades skill set.

I am interested in the use of diatoms as indicators of stream health, but more importantly I aim to better understand the foundation upon which water quality metrics and indices are developed - their taxonomy and evolutionary history.