After Humboldt, Megan went on to earn a PhD at University of Illinois at Chicago.

  For her Humboldt thesis, Megan studied songbird populations on organic row crop farms in order to answer the questions: do insectivorous songbirds provide a top-down effect on row crops by providing pest-removal services? Does that effect vary with population parameters such as songbird diversity and abundance? Megan's results provided information to organic farmers about whether it is economically advantageous to encourage bird populations on farms.