Lisa leads research that informs sustainable management of marine fisheries and ecosystems. Her current work is focused on integrating climate information into fishery stock assessment and management to support climate resilience of fisheries and ecosystems. She is particularly motivated to understand the role complex population structure and connectivity play in the productivity and stability of local and regional populations.

Lisa employs a diverse skill set to address critical ecological questions that are also directly applicable to fisheries management. Her expertise includes structural analysis of fish hard parts (e.g. otoliths, vertebrae) and the application of the chemical methods (stable isotope, radioisotope, and trace element analysis) to these structures. She also uses mathematical modeling as a tool to understand how biocomplexity within fish stocks (e.g., spatial structure, connectivity, life cycle diversity) impacts their response to natural climatic oscillations, climate change, fishing, and management measures.

Other skills used to address questions about stock structure, movement patterns, and basic life history of fish include bioenergetics modeling, fish tagging, statistics, and larval cohort analysis.

Lisa teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in fisheries science. She is based at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland.