Ms. Vining spent two years working as an undergraduate research assistant in a plant physiology lab during her undergraduate at Kansas State University. She has experience utilizing various pieces of lab equipment, and has assisted on various research studies involving effects of exposing plants to extreme drought conditions. Ms. Vining has various field experiences working with wildlife. She has monitored black bear behavior in the great north woods of Minnesota; she has monitored honey bee floral morphology preference in Kansas; she has experience handling various types of reptiles; she has assisted in Konza Prairie LTER research in Kansas by trapping, handling, banding, measuring, and bleeding tall grass prairie birds; she also has experience loading data into, and writing line of code within program RStudio.

Ms. Vining’s position with GSRC has involved leading crews in invasive species control through Early Detection Rapid Response Management Programs (EDRR) on Camp Pendleton. Through GSRC, Ms. Vining has also worked on least tern and snowy plover habitat enhancement as well as the restoration of vernal pool ecosystems. She has utilized both mechanical and chemical methods to control growth of invasive species, performed natural resource surveys, and collected data through monitoring to formulate progress reports.