Her undergraduate research topic at Southern Illinois University became the biogeography of the grotto sculpin a cave fish. From there her work in Illinois and Indiana turned to inventories and roost discovery work on endangered bats, ultimately leading to her role as a mammalogist in a statewide survey of Illinois caves.
Here, learning from cave biologist and invertebrate specialist Steve Taylor, she became immersed in the world of invertebrate biogeography. Together they documented new taxa and range extensions in Illinois, and this collaboration expanded to include studies across the US and central America. Creature spent her next 25 years in Austin, TX, taking many deep dives, both literally and metaphorically, into karst waters.
She quickly became engrossed in project caving. Peter Sprouse introduced her to cave exploration in Mexico and the camaraderie of that community. Creature joined numerous expeditions to places with exciting caving and biological objectives including central and south America, Europe, southeast Asia, and China.
A desire to link her interests in karst hydrology and biology led to a PhD project studying the blind catfish of Mexico and the aquifer invertebrates of Texas under molecular phylogeneticist David Hillis, ichthyologist Dean Hendrickson, and karst hydrogeologists George Veni and Jack Sharp. Using molecular phylogenetics to discern histories of connections across aquifer boundaries, she sampled widely in the Edwards, Edwards-Trinity, and Trinity aquifers of Texas in addition to adjacent aquifers in northern Mexico.
During these studies she collaborated with several renowned cave biologists of the region, including previous KWI karst award recipient James Reddell. Peter Sprouse approached Jean to collaborate and start a consulting business combining the fields of karst hydrology and endangered species management, and Zara Environmental LLC was born. Jean chose Zara as a career because of its specialization in karst and the collaborative spirit behind those office doors, learning from the many different accomplished and innovative cave scientist colleagues.
