A behavioral ecologist, Samantha Lantz has been studying birds for over 10 years. While at A Studio in the Woods, she submitted the first chapter of her thesis for publication. The article came out in April 2016 in The Auk: Ornithological Advances and was featured in the National Audubon Society blog.

Samantha Lantz has broad interests in social behavior, signal evolution, and sexual selection. She received her PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Tulane University in 2017. In addition to her graduate work on Malurus fairywrens, Lantz has worked as a crew leader or field biologist on a variety of species and research projects including sexual selection in manakins and spatial ecology of Mariana crows, in a variety of locations including Australia, Panama, Costa Rica, and the Mariana Islands.