Miridae Living Labs Team
WHAT DOES MIRIDAE MEAN?
Miridae (mīrəˌdē) is the Latin name for a family of insects known as the “plant bugs,” or mirids. These bugs are a diverse and fascinating group of insects that have coevolved with their native host plants for millions of years, many of which we design into our projects. Billy, the founder and owner of Miridae, has studied these insects for many years and continues to research and look for them in landscapes in and around the Sacramento region.
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Caroline
Co-founder
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Caroline Larsen-Bircher is drawing on her life-long love of insects and science education to co-found Miridae Living Labs, a non-profit sister organization to Miridae that will channel the spirit of Miridae into the education, research, and community project realm. She is beyond thrilled to be able to build a community-centered organization around her first true love: bugs. She spends her free time with her other loves: her wife Rebecca, her dog Otto, and a world map ready for adventure.
Caroline completed her PhD in Ecology at UC Davis on the biogeography of non-native tephritid flies in California. Prior to venturing into the Miridae world, she worked as a science editor for educational publishers, for the CA Dept. of Fish & Wildlife’s Biodiversity Data Branch, and teaching biology Labs at UC Davis.
Caroline holds an MS and PhD in Ecology from UC Davis, a BA in Biology from Bryn Mawr College, and participated in Duke University’s Organization for Tropical Studies, South Africa, where she discovered her love of field science.
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Billy
Co-founder (+ Director of Miridae)
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Billy Krimmel completed his PhD in Ecology at UC Davis where he focused his research on native plant-insect interactions. Billy also holds a Bachelor of Science from Brown University and serves on the board of directors for the California Native Grasslands Association.
Billy founded Miridae with the intention of creating habitat for native species within human-occupied areas and engaging people with the species interactions occurring in these habitats. With each project we come one step closer to creating a network of habitat gardens and migration corridors to support resilient populations of native species.
Billy is still active in the research community, writing peer-reviewed journal articles on native plants and insects and a quarterly column in the peer-reviewed journal Grasslands.
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Kate
Design director
she/hers
Kate Hayes is the Design Principal at Miridae Living Labs. With nearly 10 years of experience in landscape architecture, working on projects from New York City to Sacramento, Kate is excited to return to her science roots to bridge science, design, and education. She is passionate about integrating more citizen science into landscape architecture and design and believes that the power of landscape resilience starts at the scale of the individual. She is energized by working with clients and communities to realize a collective design vision.
Prior to joining the team as Miridae’s Design Principal, Kate worked at SCAPE Landscape Architecture DPC in New York City. Kate holds a Master in Landscape Architecture from University of Virginia and a Bachelor of Science in Earth Systems from Stanford University. Kate is a Registered Landscape Architect in California and Virginia and has been a lecturer in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Design in the Department of Human Ecology at UC Davis and an instructor in the Earth Systems Department at Stanford University.
Our collaborators
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Haven
she/hers
Haven Kiers is an Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Design in the Department of Human Ecology at UC Davis. She worked as design principal for Miridae for three years before taking her new position.
Haven Kiers received her Masters of Landscape Architecture degree from UC Berkeley and holds a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University.
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Julia
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Julia Michaels completed her PhD in Ecology at UC Davis where she focused her research on strategies for restoring native vernal pool wetlands. Julia currently teaches in the Biology Department at Reed College. Julia loves working on the Mobile Nursery because it is her favorite way to connect with the public about the fascinating world of native plants, and to recruit individuals to help us restore native ecosystems one backyard at a time! Julia has spearheaded MLL’s Urban Native Habitat Monitoring Program.
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Ash
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Ash Zemenick, like Billy and Caroline, is trained as an ecologist. They love the Mobile Nursery because of the joy it brings them, the Miridae team, and the many people who visit to browse and buy plants to spruce up their spaces. Ash completed their PhD in Ecology at UC Davis where they studied how flower visiting insects move bacteria and fungi between flowers in an alpine meadow. They completed a BS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan where they studied plant-insect interactions in a coffee agroecosystem. Ash is currently the station manager at UC Berkeley’s Sagehen Creek Field Station outside of Truckee, CA. Ash loves biking, rock climbing, and their fluffy dog Cosmo.
The Miridae Living Labs, Miridae Design-Build, and Miridae Mobile Nursery teams, together with our many collaborators, work together to create creative projects, native habitat, and exciting programs. If you’re interested in joining our team in any capacity, don’t hesitate to get in touch!
